


I Am Gonna Make It Through This Year (If It Kills Me)

by ifwallscouldspeak



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, First Meetings, Post-Season/Series 02 AU, Slow Burn, This is What the Kids Usta Call... A Crack Ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-01-31 01:14:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 89,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12665277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifwallscouldspeak/pseuds/ifwallscouldspeak
Summary: She shoves one of her sleeves up and thrusts her arm out, showing it to him. Steve stares down at the 008 tattooed on her skin. He curls his lips slightly, looking back up at her face. He has no idea what he’s looking at and his head is starting to pound. He can still faintly feel the burn on his skin and it’s freaking him the fuck out, okay? He just wants to grab the boys, get them home, and then curl up in a bathtub full of cold water until he has to wake up for school.She stares at him intently.“Is that supposed to mean something to me, or what?” he asks.(A post season 02 AU where Kali rolls into Hawkins trying to find her sister and crashes right into Steve instead.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> This was completely inspired by thefudge on Tumblr who has started making these [incredible Kali x Steve gifsets](http://thefudge.tumblr.com/tagged/kali-and-steve-au). I was so fucking inspired by this ship that I sat down and started to write, and here we are, 6,000 words later :) #whyamIlikethis
> 
> I'm not sure where I want to go with this yet, but I hope this first part is enjoyable! I had a lot of fun writing it! 
> 
> Also, I know we don't know Kali's age for sure (or really much about her), but I'm going off a few posts I saw online that say Kali is probably 17 years old, around the same age as Steve. (Sources: [here](https://www.elitedaily.com/p/how-old-is-eight-on-stranger-things-kali-raises-tons-of-questions-during-season-2-2988616), [here](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/172964/how-old-are-eleven-and-kali), and [here](https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/how-old-are-the-kids-in-stranger-things).)
> 
> As always, all grammar, spelling and syntax errors are my own. I do not own Stranger Things.
> 
> Title comes from "This Year" by The Mountain Goats.

Steve knows that by now, nothing should fucking surprise him. After everything he’s been through, honestly, he should be sleeping with one eye open and his hand curled around his bat, ready for anything. He’s pretty sure that would all be overkill, though, so the bat's in his car and he tries to get his full eight hours of sleep. The butcher knife he has under his pillow should be enough protection, anyway.

And yet, when he wakes up at damn near one in the morning to Dustin peering down at him, he nearly shits his pants.

“Fuck!” he half screeches, hands flying up to throw a couple of punches.

Dustin just barely jumps out of the way, and Steve shoots upright, heart pounding like a jackrabbit. His mouth is dry and he lowers his hands. He's half scared out of his sleep and half horrified that he’s almost hit the kid; he does what he always does when he’s frightened. He curses.

“You little shithead, what are you doing looking at me sleeping?” he hisses, glancing at his bedroom door.

It’s still closed, as it should be. He locks it every night, now, and has his desk chair pushes up under the doorknob to keep people - things - from getting in. When he looks back at Dustin, the kid doesn’t even look sheepish, just shocked. He has his walkie-talkie in one hand and a backpack on. Just past him, Steve sees his window wide open, even though he locked it and placed duct tape around the edges. There’s a crowbar on the floor, illuminated by the moon. A frigid, winter breeze comes in, and Steve pulls his blankets tighter around him.

It’s fucking cold, alright?

“You almost hit me!” Dustin says, voice going high at the end.

“You broke into my room!” Steve points at the crowbar.

“It was an emergency, Steve, and you didn’t have your walkie-talkie on,” Dustin glares at him.

Steve thinks of the walkie-talkie in his nightstand and almost feels bad, but tells himself to push through the feeling. It was sweet - and smart, these kids are too fucking smart - when Dustin had gifted him, Nancy and Jonathan with their own walkie-talkies, showing them how the frequency works and keeping them all on an open network, just in case. But it was just that Nancy snores, so fucking loud, and he was getting tired of worrying that he might hear her and Jonathan over the line.

“It’s not off, I just turned down the volume, alright?” Steve says. “I woulda heard one of you numbnuts screaming, or something.”

“That makes me feel so much better, thank you Steve, really,” Dustin says sarcastically.

“Kid, what do you want? Why’re you here?”

It’s a Tuesday night - technically Wednesday morning - and they both have to go to school in the morning. Funny, he thinks, that they still have to fucking go through the motions of the day as if they didn’t face down literal demons and save the entire town and probably the world. Every time his calc teacher bitched at him he wanted to throw his textbook and say, _listen fucker, you wouldn’t even be here riding my ass if I hadn’t_ -

Dustin snaps. “Steven, focus.”

“What?” Steve shakes his head, pauses. “Did you just call me Steven?”

Dustin ignores the question. “Alright, so Lucas and me are on patrol -”

“You’re on what?”

“Patrol,” Dustin says, “And there’s something - look, it keeps flickering, we don’t know, but this is the fourth time since last week that it’s happened -”

“What exactly is patrol?”

“Don’t be a dickhead, you know what a patrol is Steve -”

Steve sighs and gets out of bed. He ignores Dustin mocking him and citing dictionary definitions as he starts to hunt for some clothes. By the time he’s pulled jeans on over his pajama bottoms and found a mostly-clean sweater on the floor, Dustin’s almost done. He sits back down on his bed and pulls on some wool socks. His boots go on after that, salt and dirt around the soles.

“- At regular intervals,” Dustin says.

“Thanks, you’re a genius,” Steve says. “Why the fuck are you and Lucas on patrol on a Tuesday night?”

Dustin curls his face in disgust. “Because Tuesday is our night. Mondays is Will and Mike, Tuesdays is me and Lucas, Wednesdays is -”

“Dustin,” Steve’s voice is softer, more serious. “Why the fuck are you and Lucas on patrol on a Tuesday night?”

Dustin doesn’t look at him. “Just a precaution.”

And that - something in Steve breaks. Because they’re just kids, and they’ve already gone through more than anyone should have gone through. They’ve stared down death and evil and cruelty and still, all they want to do is protect one another. A bunch of middle schoolers, starting a fucking neighborhood watch or whatever, at midnight, just to make sure that -

“Okay,” Steve says. “And something keeps flickering?”

Dustin shifts, and he’s back to his old self. “Yeah. Across the street from the Wheeler’s. There was a truck or something, we saw it down the block, and then poof, and it was gone. But then Lucas sees it again, like, it was there for like, a split second, and then it was gone. Same thing kept happening. There would be nothing there, and then it would appear and disappear really fast. Max saw it and Mike saw it and I saw it too, tonight.”

“A truck?”

“Yeah, just like, sitting there. Watching or something,” Dustin says.

“Okay,” Steve says slowly, looking around for his hat and scarf.

“But I also heard something too, like, music,” Dustin says. “Lucas too. For like, half a second.”

Steve nods and gets up again. His scarf’s on the desk chair and his hat is on a bookshelf. He grabs them and shoulders his winter jacket on.

“And it’s Tuesday night, so that means if something weird happens, we come to get you,” Dustin says.

As opposed to Nancy or Jonathan, Steve thinks. It's left unsaid, and it just makes Steve sigh in resignation. 

“Where’s Lucas?” Steve asks.

“He’s still on patrol, hiding in the Wheeler’s shrubbery,” Dustin says.

“You - you left him there by himself?” Steve is incredulous.

“Just in case he saw anything more, someone has to watch the place!” Dustin says adamantly. “Besides, I wouldn’t have had to leave him behind if someone hadn’t turned their walkie-talkie off -”

Steve rolls his eyes. “Okay, fine. My bat’s in the car.”

“We’re gonna hafta walk,” Dustin says. “I took the back routes here so we could sneak back. Can’t make it look suspicious, like we know what’s going on.”

Steve refrains from telling him that they don’t know what’s going on, and instead follows Dustin out of the window.

 

+++

 

“It took you long enough,” Lucas mutters when Dustin and Steve drop down into the bushes beside him.

Steve crouches, carefully using the baseball bat to hold himself steady as he peers through scratchy leaves. His boots are even more covered in mud from traversing through half the backyards and it felt like all the empty lots in Hawkins to get back to the Wheeler house. He glances up slightly, towards Nancy’s window. It’s completely dark.

“Pay attention,” Dustin hisses, smacking Steve on the arm.

Steve jolts slightly, almost losing his grip on his bat and knocking into Lucas.

“Steve, focus!” Lucas says.

Steve closes his eyes for a moment, reminding himself that he likes these kids, and more importantly, they came to him for something important, so he should keep his cool. It wouldn’t do to start yelling at them and have the whole neighborhood wake up, and then he’d have to explain why he’s crouching in his ex-girlfriend’s hedges at the asscrack of the morning.

“Look, that’s where we saw the flickering,” Lucas says, pushing aside some of the bush to show Steve the street across from the Wheeler’s house.

Steve frowns. “That’s not a truck, that’s a van.”

“You can see it?” Dustin asks, incredulous.

Parked there, right in the street, is a dumpy looking yellow van with brown stripes on it. He looks back down at Dustin and Lucas who are staring at him in awe. It’s on the tip of his tongue to ask these little shitheads if they’re fucking with him, but something tells him that they’re not. That they really can’t see the van.

“Tell me again what happened?”

Lucas says, “We were on patrol last week, me and Dustin. We were riding our bikes down the road, and I saw that there was a truck - van - sitting outside the Wheeler’s house. But then it was like - immediately, after I spotted it, it was like it was gone. Dustin didn’t even see it.”

“Alright.”

“We took little more time patrolling around here but didn’t see anything else,” Lucas says. “So then we left.”

“But then when Max and Mike were patrolling, Max saw it, too,” Dustin says. “Just for a split second, she says. It was there and then it was gone. And the same thing kept happening to all of us.”

“We haven’t been riding our bikes too closely to it, cause, what the hell,” Lucas adds.

“Yeah, but then tonight, I saw the van, too. And music was coming out of it. Just for a little bit,” Dustin says.

“But you can’t see anything now?” Steve asks.

They both shake their heads no, even though Steve can see the van, clear as day, just sitting there. Doing nothing. He’s never seen it around the town before, and if he passed it, might not have even registered anything about it. But the fact that weird shit was happening around it - that the kids couldn’t see it, that it was flickering in and out of vision, like reality or something - had a hard knot forming in his stomach.

“We thought it maybe had some kind of cloaking device on it,” Lucas says. “But if you can see it, I don’t think that’s it...”

“Maybe - ”

Suddenly, one of the van doors slides open, and Steve claps his hand over Dustin’s mouth. Blunt, small teeth automatically bite into his palm, and Steve pushes Dustin’s face away, pushing forward to peer through the bushes.

Someone steps out of the van; a short woman with brown skin and a torn jean jacket is smoking a cigarette. Her clothes are dark and dingy, like some kind of punk style. It reminds Steve of that little girl - El, his mind reminds him in annoyance, still slightly peeved that it had taken two weeks after everything happened before anyone told him the full story of the strange fucking shit happening in Hawkins - who saved them all. 

He watches as she glances around the street, and then takes a good, long look up at the Wheeler house. Something pinches inside Steve, but he’s not sure what it is. Anger, probably. Irritation and tiredness, definitely. He can’t believe that he has to deal with this shit in the middle of the night. He’s not sure what’s going on, but he’s pretty sure she’s here to fuck with the Wheelers. Maybe Nancy, maybe someone found out she was the major source leaking that semi-fake story about Hawkins Lab. Or maybe Mike, maybe some government asshole found out about his relationship with El and wants to use him as bait or something -

“Do you see that woman?” Steve whispers, lips barely moving.

Underneath his hand, Dustin shakes his head no; Lucas stares back at him with confused eyes, not saying or doing anything. Steve’s heart pounds, and his grip tightens on his bat.

“Steve?” Lucas whispers.

He slowly brings his hand down from Dustin’s mouth, and moves to grip his bat with both hands.

“You two stay here,” he says as quietly as he can.

“Steve -”

“Fucking listen to me for once!” he hisses. “I said, you two stay here.”

He wishes, just for once, that these shitheads would act like regular ass kids. He wishes they would just look at him with wide eyes and nod their heads and do what they’re fucking told. But instead, they stare back at him, slightly unimpressed, before nodding in unison. Steve rolls his eyes at them, before popping up, and charging through the bushes.

He’ll have to apologize to Mrs. Wheeler about wrecking them later.

“Hey!” He shouts.

His feet are sure and steady as he marches towards the van, grip tightening around his bat, the wood pressing against his shoulder. He’s ready to start swinging, no matter what happens.

The woman startles. But then she drops her cigarette and lifts her hand at him, eyes defiant and posture tense. And then she’s gone, before Steve can blink.

He stops, in the middle of the street, staring in surprise. The woman, the van - everything is gone, and suddenly, he’s just staring up at the house across from the Wheeler’s. He furrows his brow and takes another cautious step forward.

“Steve!”

He jumps when he hears Dustin’s hissed whisper directly behind him. Steve turns to see Dustin and Lucas standing next to him, bodies tense. Dustin is holding a crowbar and Lucas has his slingshot, half raised in the direction of the now-missing van. Steve inhales sharply and then clenches his jaw, promising to himself that he’s never gonna have kids, because it’s clear that he won’t ever be able to tell them what to do, if these little shits are anything to go on.

“I told you -“

“You stopped,” Lucas says. “You can’t see it anymore, can you?”

“It must be some kind of cloaking device,” Dustin says. “Someone must be watching, and it’s activated when anyone appears -”

“But when we were hiding, you and me still couldn’t see it and Steve could,” Lucas interrupts.

“Okay, then what do you suggest is happening?” Dustin asks.

Lucas clears his throat. “Maybe it’s a teleporting van -”

Dustin snorts. “A teleporting van? Oh, come on, Lucas -”

“We know a girl who can move things with her mind -” Lucas starts.

“Both of you, shut up,” Steve rolls his eyes. “And for the love of God, fucking stay put.”

“You’re not going over there, are you?” Lucas asks.

Dustin grabs onto his jacket. “What if it’s - if it’s like, a wormhole to the Upside Do -”

Steve shakes Dustin off, before turning fully to face the two boys. A shiver crawls up his spine that he tries to suppress; something feels so fucking wrong about turning his back on the van or whatever the fuck it is. But he wants to look at these kids in the face, and try to calm them down, before he starts wrecking more shit.

“Hey,” he says.

They both just stare back at him. He sees Lucas’s eyes slide past him for a moment, staring at the empty space suspiciously.

“I need you two to stand here and not do anything,” Steve says. “If something goes down, run. Right into the Wheeler’s house, okay? Wake everyone up, make a lot of fucking noise, call Hopper - do something, anything, but follow me. Got it?”

“Steve -”

“No, and I mean it, this time,” he says. “You’re on the bench -”

“God, would you stop with the stupid baseball metaphors -” Dustin starts.

“I need you both to promise me,” Steve says. “And friends don’t break promises. Friends don’t lie.”

He knows that he’s got them, there. The two boys glance at each other, looking like they’re having some kind of psychic conversation. Steve flares his nostrils slightly, wondering what fucking deity he pissed off to be here, waiting for two children to promise they won’t come after him if he gets sucked into some fucking time warp or something.

“Yeah, we promise,” Lucas says finally, sounding really unhappy.

“Great,” Steve says, then pivots on his heel.

He takes a deep breath, and then adjusts his grip on the bat again. He marches towards where he saw the van and the woman, before, trying not to trip over nothing. The street feels sturdy beneath his feet, and helps to steady himself. When he’s a few feet away from where he remembers the van being, he tightens his fists. He imagines where the tires should be, and then swings the bat with all of its might, tensing slightly in anticipation of an impact.

The popping sound of the nails in his bat hitting the rubber still makes him jump, even though he was expecting it. He hears a surprised, cursed shout coming from in front of him, but still can’t see anything. Behind him, Lucas and Dustin are screeching, asking him if he’s fucking crazy. But Steve just jerks his bat out from - and he can’t even believe this - the invisible tire, and lifts it up again. He swings again, this time aiming for where he thinks the door is. The screeching of the nails on metal and paint grate his ears.

The yelling inside the van stops, and Steve keeps beating the invisible van with his bat, over and over again. It feels fucking good, to bash something, even if he can’t see it and doesn’t know what’s happening, exactly. On his last swing, he aims a little bit too high - or maybe, unconsciously, exactly where he wanted to hit - and then there’s the sound of glass shattering and a startled yelp.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are, but enough with this bullshit!” He yells, sounding a lot braver than he feels.

Lucas’s voice carries over, somewhere behind him. “Steve is a maniac.”

Then, as quick as it disappeared, the van comes back into sight.

Steve jumps back, but then brings his bat up defensively again. Almost clinically, he surveys the damage that he’s done to the van. The back window is destroyed, paint is scratched off, portions of it are dented and banged in, and the back tire is completely flat. The back doors to the van are open. Steve turns slowly, knees bent slightly, as he waits. In his peripheral, Lucas and Dustin are creeping closer. He throws a hand out, gesturing for them to stay back.

“Friends. Don’t. Lie.” he hisses out of the side of his mouth.

They stop immediately, and he knows they’re fucking angry with him. Well, too bad. He’s angry, too. And tired, and really wishing that for one season, just one month, even, things wouldn’t be so fucking weird in this stupid town.

He hears the sound of heavy boots stomping, and then, someone is coming out of the back doors of the van. Steve backs up again and turns his body fully, ready to continue some offensive swinging.

The short woman steps out from behind the doors, staring at him hard. He thinks her hair is purple, but that could also be a trick of the streetlight. The side of her head is shaved and her dark eyes are smudged with even darker makeup. He’s surprised to see how young she looks, even as she’s staring impassively at him. She has to be sixteen or seventeen, he thinks. His age, and if she is older, probably not by much.

Before he can say anything else, he’s on fire.

Not in that metaphorical way, but fucking literally. Flames are crawling up his jeans and scorching his hands and jacket, curling around his limbs and searing his skin. He’s blind with pain, and doubles over, gasping and dropping his bat. He rolls around on the street, trying to get the flames to squelch, but nothing is helping, ohmyfuckinggod - everything hurts, and yet, the only thing he can think is that fucking Dustin and Lucas aren’t running away like he fucking told them to -

“Holy shit!” he screams, throat horse and just in pain, tears leaking out of his eyes.

“Leave Steve alone!” Dustin yells.

There’s a dull thud, the sound of metal clanking onto the street, sounding too far away. Then, it takes Steve a few minutes to realize he’s not on fire anymore. He writhes on the ground, gasping; he accidentally slaps the back of his hand into the spike bat and howls in pain again. When he draws it back towards his body, he forces his eyes open, and shudders, trying to feel at his face and clothes. Everything is perfectly in order; his flesh doesn’t feel charred or melted, his clothes are all in tact, he still has eyebrows and hair. He blearily hears Dustin screaming, and then turns on his side and vomits. It’s mostly bile and his mom’s tuna casserole, something that he knows for sure now he’s never gonna fucking be able to eat again.

He blinks up to see Lucas and Dustin shouting and doing - something. Dustin has a lighter in one hand and a bunch of shining rocks in the other. He’s setting the rocks on fire and handing them quickly over to Lucas, who is fucking shooting them, out of his slingshot, at the woman. The woman is making small yelping noises, batting the rocks away with her hands, seeming more annoyed than anything else.

Steve groans and rolls, just narrowly missing his own puke, and pushes himself up to his feet. His palms scrape harshly against the asphalt, and he knows a few pieces of gravel are now imbedded in his skin. He grabs his bat and staggers towards the boys, fighting down another wave of nausea that’s crashing over him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees the woman lift her hand again in concentration. Blood is dripping out of one nostril.

“Hey!” Steve crashes into Dustin and Lucas, trying to push them out of the way.

All of them stumble together towards the ground. Lucas falls first, flat on his back. Dustin twists slightly and has to throw his arms out to brace his fall, almost slapping at Lucas’s chest. Steve just manages to twist on his ankle harshly, tripping so he doesn’t land on the boys. His ankle muscle throbs in protest, and he’s sure that something’s sprained or pulled or something just fucking great, right in time for basketball season -

He swings the bat, pointing it at the woman in what he hopes is a menacing manner. He must have some puke on him somewhere, on his shirt or chin or some shit, because he can smell it, harsh and putrid.

“You!” he says, glaring at the woman, who still has her hand up. “Fuck with me, but you leave these kids alone!”

Dustin is talking, down by his feet. “What the fuck, Steve!”

“Hey!” Steve practically snaps his neck to glare down at his and Lucas. “You two idiots, shut the fuck up! I told you to run -”

“She lit you on fire, you’re the idiot!” Lucas protests, trying to push Dustin off of him.

“She’s fucking crazy!” Dustin says.

“Didn’t I just say -”

“Look, it’s just like with El, there’s blood coming outta her nose -” Lucas starts.

“Both of you, shut up -”

Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees the woman step forward. Steve swings the bat up again and shifts, moving completely in front of the boys and glaring.

“You, stay right there,” he says.

She takes another step, ignoring him, to stare down at Dustin and Lucas. The boys scramble behind Steve to their feet, peeking out from behind him slightly. He can’t help but think at how stupid this fucking is, that now they seem to be cowering, not when they’re fucking being tracked by demo-dogs, or whatever the fuck Dustin had called them -

The woman asks, “What did you say?”

Steve can’t quite place her accent. Her voice is softer than he imagined, but no less blunt or clear than he would’ve thought. He looks at her, then clears his throat and tries to make himself seem bigger.

Through gritted teeth he says, “You take one more step and -”

“What if she’s like El?” Lucas is right behind him now, voice loud. “That’s gotta be it. Why we couldn’t see the truck.”

“Maybe instead of psychokinetic abilities, she like, has invisibility and pyrokinesis,” Dustin whispers, awed.

“That would explain why everyone stopped seeing the van,” Lucas says. “Once she spots someone, she can make them think she’s invisible -”

“God, would -” Steve feels like stamping his foot. “Would you two just -“

“You know Jane?” the girl is even closer to them than she was before, hand stretched out, almost pleadingly. “You know my sister?”

Steve’s brain stutters for a moment, tumbling over the word. Sister?

Dustin pushes out from behind her before Steve can stop him, Lucas right on his trail. They both look up at the woman, barely a head taller than them. Her face looks softer, just slightly, staring back at them. Steve tries to push his way between them all again, but Dustin shoves him, hard, to the side.

“Jane?” Lucas sounds confused, at first, then a look of understanding crossed his face. “We called her El.”

Steve keeps his body tense, bat still up, as he stares at the scene in front of him. The boys don’t seem scared anymore, just curious. Which shouldn’t make him feel better, considering that they all act like they don’t have one fucking reasonable thought in their head, constantly running into fucking danger. But at least, for now, shit has calmed down. They’re not in any direct danger.

“It was short for eleven,” Dustin ads, rubbing one of his arms with the other.

The woman tracks the movement. “El. Hm.”

“We’re her friends,” Lucas tells the woman.

The woman looks at them for a long moment. “The ones who were in trouble.”

Lucas nods. “She saved us. Twice.”

“She kicks ass,” Dustin adds.

Steve reaches his breaking point.

“Don’t talk to her!” he snaps at the boys. “Didn’t - what the fuck, guys, don’t talk to strangers!”

They give him an unimpressed look.

“She’s not a stranger,” Dustin says like it’s obvious and Steve’s being an idiot, “she’s El’s sister.”

“And how do you know that?” Steve snaps. “What if she’s some - some government operative, some Hawkins drone, hiding out to like, snap Mike’s neck or something -”

“I would never work with Hawkins,” the woman’s voice is cold as she interrupts him.

She shoves one of her sleeves up and thrusts her arm out, showing it to him. Steve stares down at the _008_ tattooed on her skin. He curls his lips slightly, looking back up at her face. He has no idea what he’s looking at and his head is starting to pound. He can still faintly feel the burn on his skin and it’s freaking him the fuck out, okay? He just wants to grab the boys, get them home, and then curl up in a bathtub full of cold water until he has to wake up for school.

She stares at him intently.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me, or what?” he asks.

Dustin pushes his shoulder into Steve’s ribs. “El has the same one, but an eleven tattoo. Look. Hawkins did that to her, they experimented on her.”

Steve frowns as the woman tugs her jacket back down and crosses her arms over her chest.

“I trust her,” Lucas adds.

“Well, I don’t,” Steve bites out. “She literally just set me on fire -”

“You attacked my van,” she snaps, like she’s losing patience with him, like she has the fucking right to be annoyed -  

“You’ve been stalking this house and turning invisible and I gotta English quiz tomorrow!” he almost screeches at her, voice cracking slightly.

“Steve, you’ve gotta calm down,” Dustin says. “You weren’t actually on fire -”

Steve’s nostrils flare. “Dustin, I swear to God -”

“It’s okay,” the woman says, cutting him off, looking at Dustin and Lucas. “He’s just protecting you.”

“Thank you!” Steve jerks his head at her, before glaring down at the kids. “I’m just - wait. What?”

He twists to turn back and stare at the woman. Her head is slightly cocked, looking back at him with dark, calculating eyes. Her eyes shift slightly to the baseball bat, still leaning against his shoulder. His fist tenses around it slightly, almost on its own volition.

The woman’s gaze doesn’t flicker. “I’m just protecting someone, too.”

Lucas speaks before Steve can respond. “Are you trying to find El - uhm, Jane?”

The woman drops Steve’s gaze. “Yes.”

“We don’t know where she is,” Dustin says, slowly, “but we know someone who does.”

Lucas elbows him, sharply. “I don’t know if we’re allowed to tell her.”

“She’s El’s sister! She can light us on fire!” Dustin says.

“But I wasn’t actually on fire, was I, Dustin,” Steve says, smarmily.

Dustin doesn’t even respond to him. “Maybe we should call a meeting together.”

Lucas nods. “I’ll go wake up Mike. Can you -”

“Yeah, I’ll call Will, and Max,” Dustin says.

“Wait - no, you’re not - it’s a school night!” Steve tries to interrupt them.

Both boys roll their eyes at him. Steve grits his teeth, one hundred percent done trying to look after these kids with no sense of self-preservation.

“I’m serious, whatever all of this is, it can wait,” Steve says. “And if anyone is calling anyone, I will be calling Hopper -”

“Oh, good idea, thanks Steve,” Dustin says. “We should call Hopper. Probably Jonathan, and wake up Nancy too -”

The woman clears her throat, interrupting. She digs something out of her jacket pocket. Steve shifts once more, immediately defensively, to stand in front of the boys. But all she pulls out is a newspaper article. It’s from the _New York Times_ , and it’s that article that got Hawkins Lab shut down. The one about Barb, the one that Nancy and Jonathan made happen.

“Nancy… Wheeler?” the woman asks, holding the article out. “And Jonathan Byers?”

Steve frowns at her. He’s read about a thousand versions of that article, and Nancy and Jonathan weren’t named once. Only mentioned briefly, as ‘anonymous tips.’

“How do you know about Jonathan and Nancy?” he asks.

She crumples the article slightly in her palm. “I know people.”

“That’s not fucking ominous at all, nope,” Steve says, waving his hand.

She looks at Dustin and Lucas as she speaks. “They’re why I came here, to Hawkins. I thought… anyone who could expose the Lab in this way might know more, something that they couldn’t share with the media. I thought your… friend.... Nancy could help me find Jane.”

The boys look at each other again, talking in that weird fucking silent language that they have. And before they even turn to look at the woman, Steve already knows that they’ve made up their mind. They’re going to go and wake everyone up, at damn near - what, two, three in the morning at this point? - To introduce them all and help her find El. Jane. Ugh, whatever her name was, the little girl that Mike was in love with and who fucking saved them all with her scary fucking psychic powers.

And, for what was gonna be the millionth time, Steve was gonna get dragged into all of this. Cause what the fuck else would he do? Go home and leave these kids alone with this woman who set him on fire but also didn’t set him on fire?

“I’m Dustin,” Dustin tells her.

“Lucas,” Lucas ads.

Steve doesn’t say anything, just grinds his teeth together and wonders if Hopper’ll make something up and call the high school to get him out of going tomorrow, like a sick day, or something. Could police do that, without it seeming suspect, like he got arrested or some shit?

The woman inclines her head slightly. “I’m Kali.”

It sounds so fucking familiar. Steve’s not really sure where he’s heard it before, but it’s reverent. Beautiful and sharp and he hasn’t even said her name yet. He thinks that it’s vaguely familiar though, like he’s heard it in history class, or something. He thinks it’s a name, a deity in some religion in Asia or Africa, maybe. He’s not really sure and he can’t really be bothered to remember fully right now.

The woman’s eyes skip back to him, and they stare at each other, just for a moment. He notices that she has two earrings in her right ear. His head throbs from dehydration and sleep deprivation.

“Wait here, with Steve,” Dustin says. “And we’ll get everyone else.”

“Okay,” the woman - Kali - says.

“Don’t leave, okay?” Lucas asks. “And don’t set Steve on fire again. Or, whatever it was, you did.”

She smirks, just slightly. “I won’t.”

 

+++

 

He knows the kids are only gone for a few minutes, but it feels like an eternity that he stands outside, now leaning on his bat, in the fucking cold of the early morning. Kali stands straight, looking comfortable instead of stiff, and just looks back at him with dark, unreadable eyes. He finally shifts and moves to lean against the van, needing something to help him keep upright. It’s quiet, hyper quiet in the street. Steve can barely hear the thrum of the telephone and electricity lines or the insects or anything other than his own breathing. He can see it too, small puffs that make him feel even colder. He wishes he had thought to put on some fucking gloves. He doesn’t want to put his hands in his pockets, unable to hold onto his bat anymore.

“You can relax,” she says, suddenly. “I won’t hurt you again. I’m just here for my sister.”

“In the middle of the night, in your invisible van?” he scoffs.

She doesn’t respond.

“Hurt me, I don’t care,” Steve says, and the words are tumbling out, before he can stop them. “But if you’re fucking with those shitnuggets, I’ll end you.”

This seems to amuse her, more than anything else. “You. Will end. Me.”

His hand clenches on his bat; she doesn’t miss the motion. They fall silent again, and Steve looks at her out of the corner of his eyes. She seems tired, eyes dark and slightly sunken. There’s dried blood still under her nose, and he thinks about what Mike’s told him about El. How when she strained herself too much, her nose would start bleeding. Steve wonders how long Kali’s been sitting in her van in the front of the Wheeler house, trying to keep it invisible all by herself.

It’s then that he remembers where he knows her name.

He shifts slightly. “So… Kali’s a goddess, right?”

“Yes.” She smirks, like it’s an inside joke. “Goddess of death.”

“That’s… that’s cool,” he says.

“And you’re Steve,” she says.

He says, “Yeah. I’m Steve. God of nothing.”

The smile slowly sliding off of her face; her eyes are dark, bottomless. “Hello, Steve. God of nothing.”

The Wheeler’s front door bursts open, startling Steve into standing up right. His heart is pounding swiftly, though he has no fucking idea why. He wishes that he had some water or something. He looks across the street to see Mike and Nancy trailing after Lucas and Dustin, both of them bundled up in their winter gear. Nancy even has an extra pair of gloves in her hands, and it squeezes Steve’s heart slightly. She knows him so fucking well, he thinks.

The four of them stop a few feet in front of Steve, Kali and the van. Nancy positions herself slightly in front of the boys, or at least, she tries to. Mike barrels right in front of her and into Kali, wrapping his arms around her in a warm embrace. Steve starts to shift forward, ready to grab him away at any time. But Kali simply hugs him back, smiling down at him slightly. When they pull away, Nancy steps up, looking at Kali carefully.

“Hi,” Mike says breathlessly. “I’m Mike. And this is my sister, this is Nancy.”

Nancy holds her hand out to shake. “Hi.”

Kali grips her hand tightly. “Nancy Wheeler.”

Nancy chuckles, a small sound. “Yeah.”

“I appreciate what you did,” Kali says. “What you’ve done.”

“It wasn’t enough, but…” Nancy trails off.

Kali nods, surprising Steve.

“No, it wasn’t enough. But.” Kali pauses, like she’s rolling the words around on her tongue. “But is right.”

Dustin interrupts the moment. “We should go to Will’s. Hopper said he’ll meet us there.”

 

+++

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM OVERWHELMED BY THE LOVE, Y'ALL.
> 
> Thank you, deep from the bottom of my shipper trash heart, for each and every one of you for commenting, kudoing, and bookmarking chapter one! I literally can't believe how excited all of you are about this story and I'm so excited too! We're gonna burn this mother to the ground with all the Kali x Steve goodness!!!!!!
> 
> I now have an outline and am pretty sure where I want to go with this story, so I can't wait to keep writing and hearing all of your thoughts :) I'm not replying to any of the comments (for now?) but please know that I read all of them like once a day and it makes me so happy. Please, please continue to comment so I can cry about it! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this new chapter!

+++

Because Steve wrecked Kali’s – both creepy and crappy, Steve thinks - van, Nancy steals the keys to her mother’s station wagon. Steve’s in charge of driving, and Nancy’s given up the front seat for Kali. He’s not sure if she did that more out of politeness or out of wariness. Either way, he’s glad that it’s Nancy squashed in the backseat with the kids instead of Kali. Because no matter what’s been said, he straight up doesn’t fucking trust her.

He keeps one eye on the road and the other on Kali as he drives. The thick hair hides most of her face, and yes, it’s definitely purple. She seems totally relaxed in the seat next to him. One leg is bent, the heel of her boot digging into the seat’s upholstery. Her chin is resting against her knee, fitting perfectly into the tear of her black jeans. She changes the radio station every other song without even fucking asking first, which annoys the shit out of Steve.

Everyone knows that the driver’s in charge of the radio.

He’s half tempted to slap her hand down, but he’s also scared that she’ll set him on fire or something, again. And he can’t risk losing control of the car with the shitheads and Nance in the backseat. So instead, he mumbles song lyrics under his breath and tries to not feel naked, knowing his bat is in the trunk.

Dustin complains in the back seat. “I can’t believe you knew that El has a sister! And you didn’t say shit!”

Mike tries to defend himself. “I’m not obligated to tell you everything El and I talk about -”

“Yeah, man, there’s some things that you keep between you and your girlfriend,” Lucas says.

Dustin snorts. “How would you know?”

“I -”

“Max kisses you once, at a school dance, and you think you know everything about girls!” Dustin says.

“I never said that!” Lucas sounds outraged. “And just ask Steve!”

“Yeah!” Mike jumps in. “There’s some stuff a girl tells you that you don’t share. Right, Steve?”

Steve wishes he could just pull the car over, turn around, and tell them all to shut up. “Listen -”

Kali interrupts him. “It’s interesting that you all ask Steve, when there’s two girls in the car.”

Her tone doesn’t change, so Steve doesn’t actually know if she’s joking or not. But the boys get quiet, as if it had never occurred to them to ask anyone but Steve.

“Nancy does give good advice,” Dustin says slowly. “You know, probably better advice than Steve.”

“Hey!”

He catches Nancy’s eye in the rearview mirror just for a moment. Her hand is covering her mouth, like she’s trying to hide her laugh by pretending to cough. Steve rolls his eyes, and focuses back on the long stretch of road in front of him. He really needs to fucking be more careful. He can’t mess up Mrs. Wheeler’s car by hitting a deer or some shit at three in the morning. As it is, his hands are already throbbing on the wheel, threatening to make his grip slip. At least Nancy’s gloves offer a small sense of relief, a barrier between his tender skin and the leather.

Kali twists slightly, peering into the backseat over her chair. “Do you get to talk to Jane a lot?”

Mike says, “Only like once a month, over the phone. I always have to go to Hopper’s house, cause no one will tell me where she is. It’s not allowed.”

“Hmm,” Kali says.

“She was also my date to the Snow Ball,” Mike adds. “Hopper said since it was a special occasion it was okay.”

“Hmm.”

“The Snow Ball is the middle school dance,” Steve finds himself telling Kali.

She shifts her head, and he feels her gaze on the side of his face. “I figured that out myself, thanks. Context clues.”

Dustin snickers, and Steve grips the steering wheel a little bit tighter. A spark of pain shoots through him, and he tries not to grimace. In the backseat, someone’s walkie-talkie crackles to life. Will’s voice comes over the line, asking if they can meet at Hopper’s instead. Steve tries not to groan, knowing he’s gonna have to drive another few miles in the opposite direction. Someone kicks into the back of his chair, hard and right in the base of his spine.

“You heard the man,” Lucas says. “Take us to Hopper’s, instead.”

Steve turns on his blinkers, pressing his lips together and saying nothing. He can still feel Kali’s eyes on him, sharp and calculating.

“Making Love Out of Nothing at All” comes on the radio, and Kali moves to change the station again. This time, his hand shoots out, covering hers. They stay like that for a moment, his skin buzzing, before she pulls away and cocks an eyebrow at him.  

“I like this song,” he says, throat dry.

 

+++

 

The Byers’s car is already in the driveway when Steve pulls in. Steve is careful to place himself between Kali and the boys as the wait on Hopper’s doorstep.

Hopper answers the door with a fucking glare on his face and a handkerchief in one hand. Steve sees a “J.B.” embroidered there, but doesn’t say anything. Before Hopper lets them in, he stares at Kali, long and hard. She just looks back at him without fidgeting. It makes Steve uncomfortable and he pulls off Nancy’s pink gloves, rubbing at his bruised and slightly bloodied hands.

“So you’re where she got it from,” Hopper says, voice hoarse.

Steve has no idea what the fuck that means, but Kali seems to. She smiles.

“I think it’s a better look than lost farm girl,” Kali says.

Hopper rolls his eyes. “Yeah. Real bitchin’.”

Steve raises his eyebrows. Nancy coughs awkwardly behind him.

Mrs. Byers - Joyce, Steve tells himself, she told them all to call her Joyce, after everything that’s gone down - is much more hospitable. She’s in the living room, on the couch with Jonathan and Will. Max is on the loveseat with a blanket wrapped around her, dozing off. Steve shrugs out of his jacket, wishing he was doing the same thing right now. Sleeping, in the comfort of his own bed, where, you know, he should fucking be this early in the morning.

“Hi, Kali,” Joyce says, getting up to shake Kali’s hand.

Behind Steve, Hopper coughs into his handkerchief. It’s wet and ragged and loud.

“That’s gross as hell,” Lucas says, skirting around Steve.

“Thanks kid, I wasn’t aware of that,” Hopper grumbles.

Steve watches as Nancy glances at Jonathan, a small smile on her face. Jonathan beams back at her and she hesitates. She takes a step towards him, but then pivots at the last minute, sinking into the loveseat next to Max. Dustin gently punches Steve in the ribs, like a fucking sign of solidarity or something, before plopping down on the floor in front of the couch. Mike and Lucas follow suit. Steve rolls his eyes and goes to perch on one of the sofa arms.

Hopper pulls up two chairs from his kitchen table and he and Kali sit in them, a few feet away from one another. Kali sits in the chair cross-legged, and Steve wonders how she managed to do that with very little effort. He watches as she glances at Nancy, then Jonathan, then back at him. Her head tilts slightly, like she’s figuring something out. Steve stops himself from fucking scowling back at her like a ten year old.

“So you’re Jane’s sister?” Hopper asks, suspicious.

Kali looks at him. “And you’re her policeman.”

“I got a lotta files on Jane,” Hopper says, “And not one of them says she has a sister.”

“Sometimes families are born through trauma, not blood,” Kali pauses. “Though it looks like you would know that.”

Mike pipes up. “El told me about her. They grew up together. You know… at the Lab.”

“She has powers, too,” Dustin says. “She lit Steve on fire with her mind.”

Joyce half gets out of her chair in alarm, like she’s about to run for an extinguisher. But then she pauses; and almost like they’re all fucking puppets on strings, everyone turns to look at Steve. He curls up his bruised hand into a fist on his lap and considers getting up to get that drink of water from the kitchen. There's a dull pounding right behind his right eye.

Max is the first one to speak. “He doesn’t look like he’s been on fire.”

Kali lifts her chin slightly. “He wasn’t actually on fire -”

“Fuck you, it felt like I was on fire,” Steve interrupts, without much passion behind his words.

“ - I just made him and the boys believe that he was.”

Jonathan leans forward. “You can make people hallucinate?”

Kali nods. “That’s one way of putting it.”

Hopper frowns. “Now -”

“I’m not here to talk about my powers,” Kali says.

“Why are you here, honey?” Joyce asks, a concerned look on her face. “Do you need help?”

Kali lifts one eyebrow, ever so slightly. “In a sense. I’m here because Jane is in trouble. And if you all continue to be in her life, you’re in trouble too.”

Steve glances at Mike, who shifts, an angry look crossing his face. He folds his arms over his chest, defensive. When Steve looks to Hopper, he has much the same kind of expression. He remembers Mike’s visceral reaction when he was reunited with Jane, right after she threw that demo-dog through the front window. Steve had never, ever fucking seen so much intense, raw emotion in a kid so young before.

He’s actually not sure if he’s seen that kinda emotion in anyone, ever.

“There are… bad men who are after Jane, after me, after all of the people they experimented on,” Kali continues. “I just need you to tell me where she is so that I can take her away and hide her. For her own safety and for all of yours -”

“Jane doesn’t need you to hide her. I can -” Hopper starts.

Kali levels a stare at him. “I had people like you, once. People who cared about me, who though they knew what was best. But they didn’t know what they were up against, and neither do you. I can protect Jane -”

“El can take care of herself!” Mike is up now, voice high and tight. “And we can take care of her. I don’t know why all of you just keep - keep trying to take her away, but that’s not what she wants. She wants to be here, with us, and when -”

Kali lifts her hand up, and the entire room shifts.

Hopper’s living room melts away into a doctor’s office. Everything is white or stainless steel and much too sterile. There’s the hint of bleach in the air and something else Steve can’t identify. In the center of the room, a young boy - maybe the same age as the kids, probably younger - lies on a table. He’s completely still, and his arms, legs and neck are strapped down with leather belts. An older man in a black suit and a white lab coat is leaning over him, a serrated knife in one hand and a metal rod in the other.  Near the corner is a young woman with red hair, also wearing a lab coat. She stands next to some kind of computer that has a bunch of dials on it. A cord runs from the machine to the metal rod.

“Turn it up, Marge,” the man says.

The air hums with electricity; no one else speaks. Steve is too horrified to even move.  

The man leans over the boy and cuts a straight line down his sternum, from neck to pelvic bone. Before Steve can even blink, the man jams the metal rod into the boy’s body. Sparks fly, and the boy thrashes around, screaming as blood spills out of his body.

The room evolves into chaos.

The kids are all screaming, voices too fucking high and frightened. Hopper and Joyce are on their feet, yelling for Kali to stop this. Nancy’s pushed Max behind her, trying to shield her from the sight. Jonathan stares right ahead, face sallow and frozen.

Steve turns and retches, not even a little fucking ashamed, because, seriously, what the fuck?

Bile fills his mouth and he spits on the floor, mostly stomach acid. He wipes his lips with a shaky hand before falling to the floor. He braces himself for hard linoleum, but lands on Hopper’s ugly-ass shag carpet instead. When he looks up again, the image is gone. Kali stands, hands held up defensively, blood dripping out of her nose. It takes Steve a bleary moment to realize that Hopper is pointing his gun right at her.

Before Steve can move, Mike is stumbling between Kali and Hopper. His mouth trembles like he’s going to burst into tears at any moment, and his eyes are rimmed red. Steve curses and tries to get to his feet, but his palms, raw and torn, can’t really find purchase.

“Stop!” Mike screeches. “Stop! Stop!”

Joyce yells, “Hopper, put the gun down, she’s a child!”

Nancy and Jonathan are screaming at the rest of the kids, trying to hold them back, brave and stupid shits. Nancy’s half-sitting on Max and has Dustin by the scruff of his neck. Jonathan has Lucas and Will under one arm each, both of them wriggling and clawing to get free.

Through it all, Kali stands there, head lifted slightly, defiantly. Steve’s heart beats like a jackrabbit, and he finally makes it to his feet. He lurches between Mike and Hopper, jostling and pushing the kid out of harm’s way. He breathes hard, the barrel of Hopper’s gun half an inch from his forehead. This close, Steve can see Hopper’s eyes, rimmed red and crusted with sleep. His gaze is manic, almost unseeing; for a moment, Steve thinks he’s really about to fucking get shot in the head.

“Jim!” Joyce yells again.

Hopper’s eyes focus; the spell breaks.

“Holy - holy shit,” he says, stumbling back as he lowers his gun.

Steve nearly collapses, but keeps his knees locked, keeping himself between Hopper and Mike and Kali. With shaking hands, Hopper puts his gun back in its holster, clipping it closed.

Kali’s voice is even, almost cold. “Anthony was only ten when they did that to him. And if you don’t let me take Jane far, far away from here, they’ll do that to her. To these kids.”

“Jane is - ” Hopper shakes his head, wiping sweat from his brow. “Jane is safe.”

Kali asks, “Where is she?”

“She’s safe,” Hopper says again.

Kali pushes past Steve, getting in Hopper’s face. Steve pushes Mike further behind him, ready to throw the kid to the floor and cover him with his own body, if necessary. Everyone around them seems frozen again. Joyce is in the middle of a step, and all of the kids have stopped squirming in Nancy and Jonathan’s grips.

He watches as Kali, more than two feet shorter than Hopper, stares up at him. Her feet are planted firmly apart and her hands are balled into fists at her side. Her voice is soft but strong, with just the hint of something dangerous underneath her cadence.

“I don’t want to hurt you, any of you,” Kali says. “None of you have done anything to deserve that. But I will do whatever is necessary if you don’t tell me where Jane is right now. Because anything I can do - it’s nothing compared to what Brenner will do to her.”

“Brenner is dead,” Hopper says.

Kali holds one hand out in front of her, like a shield. Everyone flinches back slightly, like she’s about to conjure another image. But she just slides her other hand into her jacket pocket, a Polaroid in her grip when she brings it back. Steve wonders how many fucking random tidbits and papers she has stashed in the torn denim, because this is getting ridiculous.

Will peeks his head up slightly from under Jonathan’s armpit. “What is that?”

Kali doesn’t answer, just holds the photo out to Hopper. Hopper takes it slowly, eyes widening in disbelief. He curses once, and then falls silent, staring down at the picture.

“That was taken a week ago in Chicago,” Kali says. “Near Lake Michigan.”

Hopper is already shaking his head before she’s finished speaking. “No. It’s not possible. This isn’t real, it’s one of your tricks -”

Kali laughs, sharp and bitter. “I wish this was something I created. But it’s not.”

Mike pushes past Steve, shrugging him off when he grabs at his arm. He snatches the photograph from Hopper’s hands and stares down at it. His fingers tense, and the photo crumples slightly.

“El’s father,” he says. “Or - she called him Papa.”

“He wasn’t her father,” Kali says, “He was her warden.”

Hopper scrubs his hand over his hair. “Even if that is real, Brenner can’t get to her. She’s safe, she’s with Dr. Owens -”

“A doctor?” Kali tenses. “You institutionalized her?”

Hopper’s already shaking his head no. “It’s not like that, he’s -”

Mike looks up at Kali. “He used to work for Hawkins Lab. But he’s a good guy. He’s not like Brenner -”

“Hawkins Lab?” Kali’s voice breaks slightly on the word, and her hands are coming up again, shaking. “You - you gave Jane over to those men, you put her in their path -”

Hopper’s backing away, tugging Mike with him. “Kali, calm down. It’s not -”

“Calm down?” her voice raises, thunderous. “Calm down?”

Before Steve can think about what he’s doing, he steps forward, wrapping his arms around Kali. He pulls her arms down and holds them at her sides, pulling her back towards the living room entryway with him. Everyone starts yelling, a confusing medley of sounds and hands reaching towards him.

But Steve just looks down at the woman - fuck it, girl, this close he’s reminded of how young she is, even with her fucking crazy powers - and holds on tightly.  She tries to yank out of his grasp, but he holds tight, hissing for her to calm down. She turns her head up and towards him slightly, glare murderous.

Then, before he can react, she’s jerking her head to the side, swift and hard. Her skull connects with his chin and his jaw clacks. He bites into his tongue and the pain is sharp and bold. He lets go of her and doubles over, stars exploding behind his eyes. He takes an inhale and tries to glance up at her, but instead falls to the floor, everything dark again.

 

+++

 

Steve’s mouth feels like cotton and tastes like ass. He tries to open his eyes, but can’t quite manage it; through his eyelashes he sees a dim light and a concerned face.

“Steve? Honey, can you hear me?” Joyce’s voice breaks through the fuzziness.

He tries to take a breath, but his tongue throbs in too much pain, instead. It’s swollen in his mouth, just like when Billy had beaten the shit out of him. Steve groans instead, low and miserable, and tries to take account of the rest of his body. He thinks he’s on the floor, on his back; and for some fucking reason, his feet feel like they’re in the fucking air. Something - someone - is gripping each ankle.

“Four minutes, twenty six seconds,” Nancy’s upset voice is somewhere near his head.

He forces his eyes open, looking up at Hopper’s living room ceiling before rolling his head. For a moment, he wonders if he’s in a dream. Cause there’s fucking Will and fucking Max, each holding up one of his legs, the soles of his feet pointing up towards the ceiling. And next to him, Nancy is kneeling with a stopwatch in her hand. He can’t even keep track of anyone else in the room, though he briefly wonders where the fuck Kali is so he can lay into her, fucking forget her scary ass powers, she fucking head-butted him -

“You had us worried there,” Joyce says, and then her fingers are on his neck, on his pulse.

He just croaks at her as she presses the pads of her fingers in, eyes scanning his face. Will and Max slowly lower his legs from the air, gently putting them down onto the carpet.

“What happened?” he manages to say.

“Kali head-butted you so hard you blacked out,” Lucas’s voice floats over.

Steve groans again, and tries to close his eyes.

“Nope, no you don’t,” Joyce says. “Here, Steve, can you sit up?”

With great effort, Steve wiggles around and manages to sit up slightly, hunched over on himself. Everything fucking hurts, and all he wants to do is sleep. Jonathan appears out of fucking nowhere, kneeling next to him, a concerned look on his face. Steve grimaces in response as Jonathan holds out a cloudy glass of water. Steve takes is gingerly, and slowly sips at it. It tastes fucking gross, and he has to stop himself from gagging. He finishes it and then lays back down, prostrate on the floor.

“What is this shit?” he asks, just barely able to make the words.

“Salt water,” Jonathan says. “It’s good for you. I’ll make another glass for you to drink.”

“Ugh,” Steve says.

Something taps his head, and Steve tilts his chin up, wincing as the bruised skin pulls. A pair of dirty sneakers kicks out slightly, and he follows the leg up. Dustin is standing there, a relieved look on his face. Lucas stands slightly behind him, leaning heavily against Max. They’re holding hands, and Steve smiles a little, thinking about how it’s fucking cute.

“Shit Steve, you really scared us there,” Dustin says.

“You little shithead, did you just kick me? Knowing I’m probably fucking concussed or something?”

Dustin rolls his eyes. “Good to see you’re fine, alright, cool.”

“Kali seemed really sorry for hitting you that hard,” Nancy leans in, telling him.

“I highly fucking doubt that,” he mutters.

She frowns at him. “Really. She said she just wanted you to let go, she didn’t mean to make you pass out.”

“Sure thing.”

She rolls her eyes, all sympathy gone now. “Alright, Steve.”

“Why’re you getting pissy with me? She -”

“Obviously is in trouble,” Nancy says. “We should be sympathetic -”

“Ugh, fuck,” Steve closes his eyes again, groaning.

“Steve?” Joyce’s voice is close to his ears, thick with worry.

“Yeah, yeah, keep my eyes open,” Steve sighs.

He cracks them open again, just to see Hopper, Mike and Kali coming into the living room from the kitchen. Kali looks down at him, not appearing apologetic at all. Hopper coughs into his handkerchief again, the movement wracking his entire body. He coughs like he’s trying to hack up his fucking lung, Steve thinks, before moving into a sitting position on the floor. The new angle makes everything spin for a moment, and he’s worried he’s gonna hurl all over himself. Not that anything would fucking come up, though, he reasons. Steve can’t remember the last time he wanted to puke so much, and he hasn’t even been drinking. Shit, does he wish that he had been. What had he said to Nance, all those months ago? Let’s just act like regular, stupid teenagers?

He snorts. What a fucking joke.

“You okay, kid?” Hopper rasps out.

Steve nods.

“Is everything okay?” Joyce asks, looking up towards Kali.

Kali’s gaze slides from Steve’s face to Joyce. “For now.”

“I told you, she’s safe,” Hopper says.

“For now,” Kali repeats again. “I don’t believe everything I hear over phone calls.”

Nancy asks, “are you going to the - uhm, Lab, or…?”

Kali shakes her head, jaw set. “The doctor is bringing Jane here.”

“El’s coming home?” Lucas’s face lights up.

Hopper nods, grunting a bit and rasping his fist on his chest. “Doc’s bringing her down over the weekend. We all have a lot to talk about, and -”

“It has to be done in person,” Kali says. “And since no one will tell me where the facility they’re trapping -”

“Helping,” Hopper says, gritting his teeth.

“ - My sister in is, I guess I’m stuck here too,” Kali says.

The words slip out of Steve’s mouth. “For now.”

She tilts her head slightly, eyes unreadable. “For now.”

 

+++

 

Everyone agrees that it’s probably best for Kali to stay with Hopper, for the time being. She doesn’t argue, though she does shift uncomfortably. Her eyes linger on all of the windows, as if she feels too exposed, being in the middle of suburbia. Steve wonders where she came from, what – or who – she left behind when she set out to find Jane.

“Not that she can go anywhere else, with her car busted,” Lucas says, glancing at Steve with a bit of admiration in his eyes.

Everyone - but fucking Steve, thanks very much - also agrees that he should stay over at Hopper’s, in case of concussion. Joyce says is because he shouldn’t be alone, and Hopper’ll be up anyway. She frames it like he needs to be awake for his shift; Steve thinks it’s because he’s gonna be too worried about having a teenage delinquent in his house to sleep.

“This means I don’t have to go to school in three hours, right?” he asks, grinning at Hopper.

“You’re going to school, kid,” is the gruff response.

“Yeah, can’t miss your English quiz,” Dustin snickers.

Steve groans, and they all exchange their goodnights, even though it’s about to fucking be dawn, soon, anyway. Nancy and Mike get back into their mother’s car, while Jonathan and the kids all pile into Joyce’s mini-van. Steve stands with Hopper, silently watching as the cars drive away. Joyce honks once, and then they’re off the lot. Once they turn the corner and go down the road, everything is draped in semi-darkness. Steve leans against the doorframe for a moment, breathing deeply. The bitterly cold air feels good on his swollen tongue.

“What you did back there, it was incredibly stupid,” Hopper says.

Steve doesn’t look at him. “Yeah, well.”

Hopper coughs again, hacking like there’s phlegm trapped deep in his lungs, before spitting out into the grass. Steve glances down for a moment, sees something dark and wet. He curls his lip in disgust and looks back at Hopper, who’s wiping the back of his mouth with his sleeve.

“Make sure you clean those hands off and wrap ‘em up before you get an infection,” Hopper says finally. “I got some stuff in the bathroom that can help with that.”

“Yeah.”

“Blankets and pillows in the closet by the kitchen, if you need them,” Hopper says. “The girl’s got the spare room, but feel free to take the couch. I’ll be in my office, working on… some things. I’ll drive you to school before I head to the station.”

“I can drive -”

“And crash into a ditch on the way there?”

Hopper gives him a Don’t Give Me That Shit, Kid kinda look before disappearing back into the house. Steve huffs slightly, not really wanting to agree but knowing it’s probably for the best anyway. Not that it’s gonna matter, he’s sure he’s just gonna fucking pass out in homeroom, anyway. Maybe fall out of his chair from exhaustion and really crack his skull open on the classroom floor -

“Hey,” Kali’s voice breaks through.

He glances down to see her peering at him, one eyebrow raised. In her hands she has a bundle of shit - hydrogen peroxide, cotton, gauze, tape, tweezers - and is holding them out towards him. She seems even shorter than he thought she was, and it takes him a moment to realize she’s not wearing her boots, anymore. There’s a hole in the toe of one of her socks and for some fucking reason, it makes her seem more approachable. Softer, somehow. Something squeezes in his chest, and he thinks she’s pretty, under the dim porch lights and faraway stars.

“He’s right, Jane’s policeman. You’re stupid and incredibly reckless.” she says.

Not fucking softer at all, then.

“Is that your way of apologizing for knocking me out?”

She lifts an eyebrow at him. “You need help with your hands.”

They look at each other for a moment, and he debates telling her off. But instead of doing that, he half turns towards her. He holds his hands out, almost unable to look at them. They’re a fucking mess. His palms are shredded, a few pieces of gravel in the skin. Dried blood is around his fingers and knuckles from small cuts from the nails on his bat; the back of his right hand is swollen slightly. Even if he ices it tonight, it’ll be purple in the morning. Just the perfect ending to this shitty ass night.

Kali shoves the cotton, gauze and tape into her jacket pocket before opening the bottle of peroxide with her teeth. One of her hands gently cups underneath one of his, holding it steady. Then, before he can blink, she’s pouring half the bottle into his open wounds.

“Jesus Christ!” he snaps, trying to jerk his hand back.

But her fingers just curls around his hand tightly, making it impossible for him to move. The peroxide wash has dislodged some of the gravel, but there are still a few pieces left. As the wound bubbles, Kali places the open bottle on the windowsill precariously. Then, she bends over slightly with the tweezers. Steve tries to wince away again as she starts to dig small bits out of his hand.

“You protect those kids like they’re your own,” she says as she works. “But they’re not. They don’t belong to you, not like with Nancy and Jonathan.”

He says, “They’re a bunch of dickheads.”

“But you love them, anyway.”

She lets go of his hand, the bubbles finally dissolved and the gravel out. It fucking hurts, and he’s hesitant to give her his other hand, his bruised hand, to clean out. She looks at him, face blank. Waiting patiently until he places his right hand in hers. He sucks in a breath through his teeth and reaches out; her palm is warm against the back of his hand. She sticks the tweezers into her mouth and grabs the bottle. He tries to tense his shoulders, waiting for the burn. Kali dumps the rest of the peroxide onto his hand, nails biting gently into his wrists.

“Fucker,” Steve hisses.

Kali places the empty bottle back on the windowsill, and gets to work with the tweezers again.

“Shared trauma can do that to people,” she says. “Bring them together. Make you family.”

Through gritted teeth he asks, “Is that how you and Jane became sisters?”

She ignores the question. “If you were smart, you wouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place.”

At that, he does snatch his hand back. For a moment her hands hang in the air, before going back into her pockets. She takes out the cotton, tape and gauze. Wordlessly, Kali hands them over to Steve. He cups them in his hands, not making any moves to bandage them up. The winter chill, which had felt kinda fucking nice and calming before, is biting into his skin. He wonders if he can get fucking frostbite from all the peroxide she’s dumped all over him. Jesus, it was like she’d never bandaged anyone up before.

“You’re not doing all of this for Nancy Wheeler,” Kali says finally. “At least - not anymore.”

Steve doesn’t say anything, and she cocks her head.

Her voice doesn’t get any softer, and barely has an inflection, not even curiosity. “So why are you doing it?”

He stares at her. “Someone has to look out for those kids.”

“But why you?”

Why fucking Steve, indeed?

She was right. He wasn’t with Nancy anymore; it was pretty obvious they were never getting back together. He started looking after Dustin and the rest of the shitheads kinda on accident, and just never really stopped. What responsibility did he have to them, to any of them? The threat of the world fucking ending was over, basically. He didn’t need to drive Dustin to school dances or to the arcade. He didn’t have to check in with Max every Sunday night, making sure her shit stain of a stepbrother wasn’t whaling on her anymore. He didn’t need to volunteer to pick up groceries for Joyce or take Lucas to get new winter boots when his dad was on a business trip and his mom was sick with the flu with his little sister. But he did. For some reason, he just couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that he was responsible for these kids. For their families.

His family.

He shrugs instead, and repeats himself. “Someone’s gotta do it.”

She looks at him for a long moment.

“Don’t manhandle me again,” she says. “Unless I ask you to.”

He almost chokes on his own tongue and she smirks at him, slightly. Her eyes drag up and down his body, just for a moment. He feels himself flush, even as his body wants to shiver from the fucking freezing weather. He thinks she might say something else, but she turns on her heels and goes back into the house.

 

+++

 

Steve falls asleep twice on the ride to school. By the time they get to HHS, Hopper has to lean over him and open the door. Steve almost fucking falls out, jerking as the cold air hits his face. Thank fucking God he actually wore his seatbelt.

“Fucking Christ!” Steve sputters, before he tries to right himself in the seat.

Hopper gives him an unimpressed look. “Get out, kid.”

“You didn’t - what about my backpack?” Steve asks. “We couldn’t even stop at my house -”

“I got things to do, and the bell’s about to ring,” Hoppe says pointedly.

“Fucking - thanks, Hopper, this was great,” Steve mumbles, stabbing his finger down to release the seatbelt.

He basically falls out of Hopper’s car and strolls into the school just as the bell rings. He nods at a few people and gets some strange looks in return, and he can’t even blame them. He knows he looks like a fucking mess, even though he avoided all the mirrors in Hopper’s house when he left.

He hadn’t really allowed himself to sleep a fucking wink because he was scared of slipping into a coma, or some shit. He’s pretty sure that can happen, when you keep fucking blacking out from beatings. So he knows he has bags under his eyes, a nice addition to the bruise that’s blossoming under his chin. His hands are badly bandaged up from trying to do it himself, ripping off pieces surgical tape with his teeth.

At least he was able to shower and kinda brush his teeth with his pointer finger. But then Hopper didn’t have any hair product and almost none of his clothes fit Steve. Steve had to put on the same boxers, jeans and t-shirt, only borrowing a pair of oversized socks and an ugly ass wool sweater. He’d left his pajama bottoms bundled up on the couch, along with the pillow and thin blanket he had used. So he knows his hair is resting flat and he probably looks like he just got jumped outside the grocery store, or something.

Steve stops by his locker, wondering how he’s gonna carry around all these books with his torn up hands and no bag. At least most of his textbooks are still in there. Besides his English notebook and his calc homework, still sitting on his desk at home, it’s not too bad that he doesn’t have his shit with him.

“Looking good, pretty boy,” Billy’s voice calls out, somewhere down the hall.

Steve closes his eyes for a moment at the ringing laughter that follows. He feels a shoulder check into his back, just slightly, before they all move past.

God, what a fucking dipshit.

Was he this horrible, just a few months ago? A nagging feeling in his gut and the flash of _whore_ painted in red tells him he was much, much fucking worse. And he knows it’s fucking bad when he tries to make himself feel better by reminding himself that at least he’s never tried to beat up some kid just for being black and liking his little sister. He almost smiles, then, thinking of Max screaming and almost castrating Billy. He wishes, oh how he fucking wishes, that he had seen that first hand, instead of being passed out on the floor.

The warning bell rings, and he slams his locker shut, trying to ignore the throb of pain in his hand as he does so.

 

+++

 

Steve glares down at the quiz on his desk, wanting to do nothing fucking more than to just put his head down and sleep.

  1. _Compare and contrast male and female attitudes toward marriage, giving special attention to Wickham, Charlotte Lucas and Elizabeth._
  2. _Compare and contrast the Bingley-Darcy relationship with the Jane-Elizabeth relationship._
  3. _Compare and contrast the roles of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mrs. Bennet._



His hand can barely curl around his borrowed pencil without sparks of pain shooting up his muscles and up his arm. Around him, everyone is basically hunched over, scribbling furiously, and writing who the fuck knows what. He peeks upward, glancing at Mr. Garwood. He’s just in his chair, feet up on his desk, reading the _Hawkins Daily_.

Steve sighs and glances back down at the quiz. It’s fucking bullshit, he thinks. Who the fuck cares about this two hundred year old novel, anyway? Like yeah, he’d read it. But he wasn’t really sure what was special about it. He wasn’t sure what was special about any of the books they’d had to read. All of these dead British people only wrote about like, fucking societal conventions and feeling trapped in their class and giving so many fucking details about ballrooms and tea parties, and who fucking cared, anymore? All these novels were pointless, especially with the shit that was happening. Not only in Hawkins - which no one fucking knew about, anyway - but in the world in general. So why the fuck did he have to sit here and write about how both Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet were obsessed with social standing, but Lady C was a massive bitch and Mrs. Bennet just wanted better for her girls?

Steve half-heartedly writes a paragraph for each question, working slowly. His words come out sloppily and too rounded, like he’s a fucking kid learning how to write again. With just ten minutes of class to spare, he finally puts his pencil down and slouches low in his seat.

He can’t fucking wait to get home and just sleep until tomorrow.

 

+++

 

A harsh bang, the sound of heavy plastic on metal, jerks Steve awake.

He gasps, sucking his breath in, and pulling his body up. Disoriented, he shakes himself slightly. He’d decided to sit outside for lunch, even though it was fucking freezing, in the hopes that the cold would keep him awake. His friends - the few he had left, thanks Billy - had all looked at him with disturbed looks on their faces before going inside the cafeteria. But Steve didn’t really mind; he kinda needs the cold, the solitude. Even if he fucking fell asleep anyway.

“Good, so you’re not dead from hypothermia,” Jonathan’s amused voice floats down to him.

Steve glances up.

Nancy and Jonathan look down at him, bundled up to the brim, their backpacks slung over their backs. Steve notices that Jonathan’s carrying a copy of _Lord of the Flies_ in his hand, a bunch of post-it notes sticking out of the novel. His heart seizes slightly, because he knows that’s fucking Nancy’s copy. She always does that with her books.

“I’m exhausted,” Steve says instead.

Nancy gives him a sympathetic look. “Jonathan took a nap inside the photo studio.”

“It’s dark and comfortable in there,” Jonathan says, only a little defensively.

“I bet,” Steve says, because he can’t think of anything else to say.

Nancy cocks her head slightly. “Listen, you want to get out of here?”

“What?”

Nancy gestures to herself and Jonathan. “There’s no use staying in school right now, acting like we care about what’s happening. So...”

“We were thinking about going back to the Nance’s,” Jonathan says.

“I thought we could change Kali’s tire, take the van back to Hopper’s?” Nancy says. “At least so she can get out of his house, explore the town a bit -”

“Explore the town?” Steve raises his eyebrows. “This town?”

Nancy’s face shutters for a moment. “Don’t you think you owe it to her, anyway?”

She and Jonathan are giving him expectant looks, like he’s their fucking dad and they’re asking him to get them ice cream. He sighs, looks at his tray full of half-frozen food in front of him. He hadn’t been able to swallow down the cafe’s nasty ass chicken sandwich today, so there’s only one bite in the patty.

“Yeah, why not,” he says. “Not like I’m a senior and need to stay in school or anything to make sure I get into college, anyway.”

Jonathan smirks, and jingles his car keys. “I’ll drive.”

 

+++

 

Nancy knows how to change a tire, because of fucking course she does, and Jonathan has everything they need but the right kind of spare tire, because of fucking course he has. Steve can’t really do much of fucking anything, so he just stands in the street looking like a moron as they do all the work.

“Who the fuck has a tire jack in the trunk of their car, man?” Steve asks.

Jonathan is crouched down next to Kali’s van, looking at the damage Steve had done with is bat. In the harsh light of the day, it looks even worse - or more badass, if Steve doesn't say so himself - than it did early this morning. Steve almost chokes on his spit with the thought. Did all that shit really only happen like seven, eight hours ago?

“It’s important to carry emergency gear in your car, just in case,” Jonathan says, sounding like the fucking shop teacher. “A jack, lug wrench, heavy gloves, wheel wedges, and rain poncho can save lives -”

“Yeah, yeah, alright,” Steve says, rolling his eyes.

“You’d think you’d be more careful, after everything we’ve been through,” Nancy says.

She yanks on the back doors of Kali’s van, which, miraculously, aren’t locked. Steve watches as she jumps right into it, muttering and making some grossed-out noises. When she re-emerges, it’s with a spare tire and a triumphant look on her face. Steve rocks back on his feet, thinking about all the shit that he has in the trunk of his car, right now. An extra blanket, a first-aid kit, some bottles of water, a bunch of his dad’s old C-Rations, a gym bag full of dirty clothes, a couple of baseballs, a cooler full of bloody steaks, a bear trap, and his baseball bat. That’s prepared, enough, he thinks. Maybe not to fucking change a tire, but - in this town, that’s the least of his fucking worries most days.

He watches, uselessly, as Jonathan and Nancy start to change the tire on Kali’s van. They work well together, moving almost in unison and twisting around each other’s bodies like they know each other well. Steve clenches his jaw for a moment, before it begins to ache and he tries to relax. It’s been easier, seeing Nancy and Jonathan together. To see how well they fit and get along and just seem like they belong.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t fucking hurt, a bit, you know, sometimes.

“Oh, here,” Nancy says, turning towards Steve and tossing something at him.

He catches it in both bandaged hands. Kali’s car keys, he assumes, land softly and jingle as they settle in his palms. There’s a small keychain on it, a soft, leather thing that’s shaped like a skyscraper. Steve turns it over; _ESB,_ _NYC_ is burned into the back, with small initials in the corner.

“How do you think she found us?” Jonathan asks. “Kali.”

Nancy answers. “Lucas and Dustin said she figured out it was us, you know, who leaked all the information about Hawkins Lab.”

“Yeah, but how could you find us just from that? We’re not mentioned -”

“Maybe she knows journalists,” Nancy says.

“Yeah, or maybe she’s a psycho,” Steve mutters.

“Steve!”

“What?” he shrugs back at Nancy. “Come on, I can’t be the only one who thinks -”

Jonathan shakes his head slightly, removing what Steve thinks are lug nuts by hand. He collects them all before passing them over to Nancy. She rolls them around slightly in her palms.

“It’s suspect, definitely,” Jonathan says. “I agree, Steve.”

Nancy purses her lips. “Okay, well El - Jane - can find people, right? Maybe Kali can do the same thing -”

“That’s even more fucking horrifying,” Steve says.

“Not any more horrifying than knowing the jackass who started all of this is still out there -” Nancy starts.

Steve squints. “Why are you defending her? You saw what she can fucking do, in the living room, and she -”

“I’m - I’m not defending her!” Nancy says. “And - well, so what if I am? It’s not like that means I’m against you, or anything -”

“What is that supposed to mean -”

“Look!” Nancy finally yells, annoyance crossing her face. “Look. I’m just saying. She came here to protect Jane. And I think that’s - it’s not something we should just brush under the rug lightly. Especially knowing what these people can do, you know? If she came here, maybe - I think it’s for a reason.”

“How do we even know that she’s telling the truth, though?” Jonathan says. “Nance, I don’t know.”

Steve agrees. “You’re too trusting.”

“Did you not see how terrified she was when Hopper told her Jane was with a Hawkins doctor?” Nancy shakes her head. “You don’t - when you love someone, you don’t, you can’t, fake that kind of fear.”

“Yeah, I saw alright,” Steve says. “I saw how fucking terrifying she was -”

“Fine, you two don’t want to trust her, but I do,” Nancy says.

Jonathan leans back on his haunches, mounting the spare tire. “That’s not all it is. I think we gotta be a little wary. Like, what could her motive be? You think it’s just that she’s worried Brenner’ll come after Jane, come after us? There has to be something more than that.”

Nancy shakes her head. “Okay. You want to talk about her powers? She can make us hallucinate. She could show us anything that we wanted - she could have tortured us all until Hopper told her where Jane is. She could have forced it out of him. But she didn’t. Why?”

Steve screws his face up slightly. “She didn’t want to exert the effort?”

Nancy rolls her eyes. “No. I think it’s because she knows that we’re important to Jane, in some kind of way. And she doesn’t want to risk screwing up her relationship with Jane by hurting us.”

“Or she’s smart,” Jonathan says. “Damage control.”

Nancy insists, “She just wants to make sure her sister is safe. It’s not anything I wouldn’t do for Mike, or you wouldn’t do for Will, or Steve wouldn’t do for Dustin or Lucas or Max. Or any of the kids.”

Steve watches them finish changing the tire in silence.

 

+++

 

Kali’s sitting on Hopper’s front porch when they pull up. Steve parks the van right next to his car, still sitting there from the night before. He stays inside the van for a moment, watching Kali watch them. He wonders how she’s got her hair to stick up without any hairspray. It occurs to him almost belatedly that maybe she’s using her freaky ass powers right now. Making them all see her hair as stiff and flawless, instead of unkempt and oily, maybe.

She stands up as Steve, Nancy and Jonathan get out of the van. A bit of flannel peaks out from under her jean jacket, and Steve wonders if she’s borrowed it from Hopper. She tilts her head slightly, looking at the three of them like a puzzle she can’t figure out just yet.

“Hi,” Nancy says, walking over to Kali.

“Hi,” Kali says. Her eyes slide to Steve, a slight smile on her face. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“We decided to skip,” Nancy answers. “Brought you a present.”

Kali nods at the van. “I can see that. Thank you.”

“Couldn’t get the dings out of it, and the window’s still broken,” Jonathan tells her.

Kali snorts. “That’s not a problem.”

Steve crosses his arms over his chest, his lip curling up in disgust and confusion. Everything that’s happening is just - okay, it’s too fucking normal. Polite, like they all grew up together and are just meeting to do a study project, or some shit. As if Kali can’t literally do the shit she does with her mind. As if she didn’t just drive into Hawkins and fucking set up across the street from the Wheeler’s, fucking stalking them, or whatever. Jesus, is he the only one remembering that she lit him on fire and showed them all a kid being tortured?

“I’m waiting for Hopper to take me to his mystery cabin,” Kali tells them. “Apparently it’s where he kept Jane, before he let the doctor take her.”

“It’s secure, out of the way,” Jonathan nods, telling her.

Kali stretches, and her shirt hikes up. Steve’s eyes focus on her skin.

“You want some tea?”

 

+++

 

Steve sits stiffly at the kitchen table, watching Kali work around the stove like this is her fucking house. Nancy seems right at home, too, drawing her legs up on the chair and flipping through a fucking Sear’s catalogue. Jonathan also seems like he’s just calm, slouching low in his chair like he usually does. Steve wonders if he should say something about how bad posture will lead to back problems, figures if they’re friends now, or whatever, he should be looking out for Jonathan, too.

Shit, what is he becoming?

“All the policeman has is Lipton,” Kali says, cringing a little like she’s apologizing.

“That’s all we have in my house, too,” Nancy says, like she’s absolving Kali of a fucking crime.

Steve wants to bang his fist on the table and ask what the fuck is going on here, but he doesn’t want to damage his hands any further. He partially wonders if his mind is just making up this freaky shit, due to lack of sleep. He wonders if he should be worried that this is all stranger to him than trying to catch Dustin’s killer demo-dog, Dart, with a pail full of bloody meat.

Kali hands them all steaming hot mugs, placing milk and sugar on the table in front of them. She folds herself into the empty chair next to Steve, their shoulders brushing as she does so. He notices that she smells like Irish Spring soap and has a thin, plastic pearl necklace around her neck. It seems out of place, with the rest of her aesthetic.

“I should thank the two of you,” Kali says, nodding her head at Jonathan and Nancy. “I wouldn’t even have known where to start looking for Jane, if it wasn’t for the two of you.”

Nancy smiles, softly. “It had to be done. Someone had to stop them.”

“They’ve done a lot of horrible things to people, to children,” Kali says.

Nancy nods. “And after everything they did, how they just tried to cover it up…”

“They’re all bad men. And they deserve to be punished,” Kali says. “Don’t you agree?”

“Someone has to bring them to justice, and I just wish – I just wish we could’ve done more, you know? Really expose them -” Nancy sighs. “But we did all that we could, you know? No one would’ve believed anything else.”

Kali’s eyes are dark, intense. “But what if you could do more? All of those people, who worked there, are still out there.”

Nancy is already shaking her head. “What more can we do? And anyway, as long as the gate is closed, and the Mind Flayer can’t get to anyone else…”

Kali stills, frowning. “The… Mind Flayer?”

Her chin dips down slightly and she stares at Nancy. The silence stretches on, though, as Nancy just stares down at the mug in her hands. She looks lost in thought. Steve knows she’s still thinking about Barb. Or maybe she’s thinking about Will. Steve’s seen the burn scar, on his side, from where Nancy’d stabbed him with the poker.

It’s Jonathan who speaks first.

“Did… Jane tell you about what happened, here?” Jonathan asks. “About what the Lab did, opening the gate to the Upside Down?”

Kali’s eyebrows disappear near her hairline. “The Upside Down?”

Nancy looks up, her eyes meeting Jonathan’s. Steve watches as she reaches out, covering one of his hands with her own. Kali’s eyes track the movement.

“It all started when Will - Jonathan’s little brother? - Went missing in the woods,” Nancy says slowly.

 

+++

 

Steve doesn’t think this is a good idea, at first. But as Nancy and Jonathan start sharing their story, he can’t help but interject, here and there. Because if they’re just gonna spill all their secrets to this strange girl, well then - they should fucking make sure they have all the details right okay? And they don’t know what it was like, for him. They don’t know everything that he and the shitnuggets did, everything they tried to do just to help out, just to be fucking heroes. Just to save their friends.

They don’t know how he felt, all those times.

Like how much he had to talk himself up into going to the Byers’s house in the first place, how confused and fucking scared he was after seeing Nancy’s hand. Or how he really thought he was gonna fucking die that night, armed with just his fucking bat and a shitty bear trap.

How he felt completely useless, not understanding or really knowing what Nancy and Jonathan went through. How at first, he went with Dustin outta curiosity and then it was only after the gripping terror that something had fucking eaten through miles of concrete did he realize how real this all was again. How, for some fucking reason he didn’t even know, he kept following these kids around, kept trying to protect them and keep them safe. How for weeks after Billy pummeled him half to death, he couldn’t even look at himself in the mirror.

And it’s - okay, it’s not like he’s trying to spill his fucking guts here. He keeps all that emotional shit inside. He doesn’t talk about being scared shitless half the time, even when nothing bad has happened. He doesn’t tell them that he can’t sleep all that well anymore and he’s sure he’s gonna flunk out. And he definitely doesn’t mention that he only has like, two friends now, and isn’t it fucking pathetic that one of them is his ex-girlfriend and the other is her new boyfriend.

But they’re not getting a lot of the details right, Nancy and Jonathan, bout what was happening back at home while they went off on their adventure. Together.

 

+++

 

“So you did this for your friend,” Kali nods slowly. “To get justice, for her.”

“She wouldn’t even have - it was -” Nancy stops. “It’s done, now, anyway. Jane closed the gate.”

Kali stares at Nancy for a long moment.

Just as she opens her mouth, the front door slams open. Steve startles in his seat, and they all turn to see Hopper stomping into the kitchen, dressed in his full police gear. He balks for a moment, staring at them, before turning his head to the side and coughing. It sounds even worse than it did this morning. Hopper’s entire body shakes, like his bones are rattling out of control. He storms over to the sink and retches.

Three chairs scrape back as Steve, Nancy and Jonathan half stand. Hopper just throws his arm out behind him to tell them to stay. He coughs one last time, before turning the faucet on. He shoves his face almost directly beneath the spray, gulping the water down, before wiping his mouth with his sleeve again. The water keeps running behind him as he splashes it around the basin.

“Holy shit, Hopper,” Steve says. “You dying or something?”

He doesn’t need to see Hopper’s face to know he’s rolling his eyes.

Hopper finally turns the faucet off and moves to face the table. He leans against the countertop, folding his arms across his chest. His face is slightly ruddy, and there’s a sheen of sweat over his brow.

”It’s just a cold, probably the flu, or something,” Hopper says. “Don’t you three have houses?”

Jonathan says, “We fixed Kali’s van. Just wanted to bring it over.”

“Yeah, cause that’s what I need, the neighbors asking about that trash heap in my driveway,” Hopper shakes his head.

Kali smiles, not offended at all. “I’ll be out of your way, soon.”

“Yeah,” Hopper says, staring at her, hard. “Yeah.”

“We should get going, then,” Nancy says, standing up. “Steve?”

He glances up. “Huh?”

“Can you drive me and Jonathan home?”

 

+++

 

By the time Steve gets home, it’s dark out again. His mother’s at bridge already, and his father hasn’t even seemed to notice he wasn’t in his room all night long.

“Dinner?” Steve asks as he passes by the living room.

“Leftover casserole,” his father answers, not even bothering to look past the television.

Steve’s stomach churns and he decides it’s gonna be a PB&J kinda night after all.

As he spreads the peanut butter over a slice of bread, he picks up the phone in the kitchen. Placing it between the crook of his shoulder and his head, he dials Dustin’s number and waits.

The line crackle to life, and Mrs. Henderson answers the phone.

“Hey, Mrs. H, it’s Steve.”

“Steve! How are you, honey?”

Steve licks a glob of peanut butter off of his thumb. “I’m fine, Mrs. H. And you?”

“Well, we just took the cat for a check-up at the vet’s office, and everything seems A-Okay. It’s probably about time for that spaying, though - ”

“Sounds great, Mrs. H.” Steve says, knowing it’s best to just cut her off before she can get the ball rolling and he’s on the line with her for half an hour talking about a damn cat. “Can I speak to Dustin?”

Mrs. Henderson clucks. “Oh, dear, I don’t think he can come to the phone right now.”

Steve frowns. “Is he okay?”

“He’s come down with a bit of a cold,” Mrs. Henderson says. “He woke up with a frightful cough this morning, and -”

There’s a click over the line, then the sound of faintly labored breathing.

“Ma, I’m fine,” Dustin says, his voice hoarse.

“Shit, kid,” Steve automatically says. “Uhm - sorry, Mrs. Henderson -”

“Dustin!” Mrs. Henderson says, right over the line. “You should be in bed right now, not on the phone -”

“I’m okay enough to speak to Steve, it’s okay,” Dustin says. “Can you please just hang up, please?”

Steve tries to hide his snickers as Mrs. Henderson makes an exaggerated sniffing noise.

“Listen to me, young man, you are not -”

“Please, Ma?” Dustin asks. “And, could you make me some tea? To - to really soothe my throat.”

There’s a pause, and then Mrs. Henderson sighs. “Alright. Alright. But don’t keep him on the phone too long, Steve. He needs his rest.”

Steve makes a noise of affirmation, before taking a huge bite out of his sandwich. He hops up into the counter as Mrs. Henderson hangs up the phone, a soft click going over the line. Dustin is quiet for a moment, like he wants to make sure his mom’s actually hung up, before he starts speaking a mile a minute.

“Shit, Steve, can you believe what happened last night? El’s sister? She’s a total badass -”

“Yeah, yeah, everyone’s impressed by the girl who set me on fire,” Steve grumbles around a mouthful of bread.

“Well obviously,” Dustin says.

Steve rolls his eyes. “Look, kid, I only called to see if you still need me to drive you to the arcade after school tomorrow, but -”

Dustin coughs directly into the line, and Steve stops talking. A hum of concern runs through him. The kid sounds really bad, like he’s a pack-a-day smoker or some shit. Steve frowns and places his sandwich on the counter next to him.

“Kid?”

“I’m - ” another cough, wet and fucking gross. “I’m fine.”

“Like hell you are,” Steve says. “You’re staying home tomorrow again, right?”

“Yeah,” Dustin doesn’t sound too happy. “But it’s not a big thing. I must’ve just caught whatever Hopper’s hacking out.”

“You need me to bring you soup, or something?”

“Yeah, Steve, I really need you to bring me some Campbell’s, right outta the can -”

“Alright, alright, just checking, shit,” Steve says.

“But I’ll see you on Saturday,” Dustin coughs again. “With El, and everything.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Steve pauses. “Take care, Dustin, seriously.”

Dustin hangs up on him; Steve wonders why he expected anything else.

He trudges back to his room, tired to his fucking bones, as he eats his sandwich. Once he gets to his door, he tries to turn the knob, but it won’t move at all. He frowns, pushing his weight against the door for a moment, but then sighs. He didn’t fucking leave through his door, last night, but the window. It should still be locked, his desk chair right underneath the knob.

He almost wants to laugh. He’s gonna have to break into his own room. This is just fucking - with the day he’s been having, it’s really the icing on the fucking cake.

 +++

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I don't know what to do when someone blacks out or how to change a tire, I had to Google that asdjkl
> 
> 2) I stole those questions on Steve's quiz from Sparknotes
> 
> 3) C-Rations/MREs EDIT: This originally read MREs, but @Nyxelestia pointed out that when ST takes place, the military would have still used C-Rations, not MREs! C-Rations are basically a pre-packaged food ration that they use in the military. 
> 
> 4) Thank you for reading! Please drop your thoughts below! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BYEEEEEEE ALL YOUR COMMENTS ARE AMAZING AND I READ THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN, y'all are beautiful beans and I'm so excited to share this new chapter with you!!!!! I think what I'm going to do is not comment on your comments below but if there's any burning questions I'll address them in the chapter notes!
> 
> 1) I think an interesting dynamic is identity and naming, so part of what I'm doing with having the kids still calling El/Jane El and everyone else kinda using Jane is thinking through what names mean and to who (also I think El is a cute nickname and don't see her friends really using anything else).
> 
> 2) I'm really enjoying writing Steve and for this story, I'll be sticking to his PoV (but who knows, for another story...?)
> 
> 3) Special thank you to Nyxelestia and TolkienGirl for correcting my 1980s references and word choice! I'm kinda just bumbling as I go along with these references, so if I make one that's not era-correct please feel free to comment on that and drop some knowledge :) 
> 
> 4) WARNING, there is some Billy-typical racism, but don't worry... oh, don't worry... *intense cackling*
> 
> Enjoy this new chapter bbies!

+++

 

The first thing he sees as he steps out of school is Kali, idling across the street.

He almost stumbles down the steps when he spots her. She’s leaning against a bicycle - whose, he has no idea - smoking a cigarette. The sleeves of her denim jacket are rolled up, even though it’s fucking winter, but she has a black scarf thrown around her neck. A few freshman push by him and he barely moves, just staring at her. Kali turns her head, and their eyes meet across the distance. She lifts her head up, nodding at him. Then, she stubs her cigarette out on the handlebar and pushes off of the bike. He watches as she strolls across the street towards him, not bothering to check to see if any cars are coming.

Steve’s not sure what the fuck he’s supposed to do, now.

“Your legs broken, or something?” a taunting voice says to his left. “Still sore from that ass beating in gym?”

Steve barely turns his head in Billy’s direction. Out of the corner of his eye he sees that Billy’s stopped with Carol and Tommy, both of them snickering at Steve. Most of his attention is squarely on Kali, who’s just a few feet away from the HHS steps. Her jacket isn’t buttoned up, and he gets a good look at the shirt underneath it. He startles, just for a moment, realizing it’s the sweater that he had left at Hopper’s. She smirks up at him from the bottom of the steps, like she knows it’s his.

Something warm rattles inside him, even as he just stares at her. Kali looks back, not saying anything. All she does is raise her eyebrow slightly, hands in her jacket pocket.

Steve asks, “What are you doing here?”

What he means is, what are you doing here, wearing my sweater like it belongs to you?

“Downgrading a bit, aren’t you, Steve?” Billy’s voice is right in his ear, blunt and malicious.

Before Steve can say anything, Kali speaks. Her tone is almost pleasant, which scares the shit out of Steve. She keeps her eyes on him the entire time, not even acknowledging that Billy is there.

“I thought you could give me a lift somewhere,” she says.

Billy barely takes his eyes off of Steve. “Oh, so it can speak.”

Steve turns to look at Billy, now. Carol and Tommy shift, looking uncomfortable. Billy stares back at him, a slight sneer on his face. It’s the same look Steve remembers from that night at the Byers’s place, the one he was sporting when he realized that Lucas was over.

“Nice, nice,” Steve says. “But here’s a thought, why don’t you shut the hell up?”

“First Sinclair, now this one,” Billy sneers. “What’re you doing, collecting them?”

An angry rash spreads through Steve, and he clenches his jaw. Behind Billy, Carol and Tommy are mumbling to themselves, glancing at Kali. Her face remains completely blank, her posture relaxed, as she doesn’t react at all. Everyone’s quiet for a beat, waiting for Kali to do something, anything. Cry, maybe, or start yelling. But she just stands there, almost giving off an amused vibe, staring back at Steve. Carol says something about not missing her ride home, and Tommy practically runs after her.

It’s then that Steve almost snorts, holding in a laugh. Part of it is because this, this he recognizes.

People like Billy, like Carol and Tommy - like him, or maybe like how he used to be - love the power of making someone else feel small. They love targeting people who they think have no one backing them up. And for Carol and Tommy, they do it in snide, almost subversive ways. They fucking love smiling in people’s faces and laughing behind their backs. But Billy is different. Because Billy thinks that he can do whatever he wants to whomever he wants, with no consequences.

Before Max drugged him and threatened him, Steve’s pretty sure that no one’s ever stepped up to Billy before and won.

And now - look, Steve can stick up for himself, okay? As long as it means the shitheads are safe, he’ll take the brunt of the abuse. He’ll withstand a thousand snide remarks in the hallways and he’ll let his face get bashed in a hundred times over, if it means keeping Max and Lucas and the kids out of harm’s way. Out of Billy’s way. Cause people like Billy - they need to feel like they’re in control.

But a bigger part of him wants to laugh because Billy has no fucking idea who he’s messing with. A dark thought crosses into Steve’s mind, and he leans forward slightly, eagerly awaiting the moment Kali is gonna set Billy on fire or make him think he’s drowning or some equally heinous - but overall deserved - shit.

Billy opens his mouth, and all the humor drains from Steve’s body.

What, you wanna start your own zoo?” Billy pauses, almost fucking gleeful. “Didn’t realize you were a monkey fucker.”

And that - Steve fucking can’t, okay?

He squares his shoulders, fists clenching. Twin aches pound through his palms; his tongue might be mostly healed at this point, but his hands are still basically shredded. He shifts, facing Billy. He moves his arms, getting ready to swing, hoping that he can do at least a little bit of damage to Billy’s smug ass face with all the wrappings he has around his hands.

“So you wanna do this, here?” Billy shrugs, tossing his bag on the ground. “Get ready to have your ass beat again.”

But then Kali steps between them boldly, facing Steve. Her face is still calm, though he can read some surprise in her eyes. It’s as if she can’t quite believe that she moved herself, like her body just reacted without permission from her brain. But then she places a hand on Steve’s arm, her fingers clenching slightly around his muscles.

“Let’s get outta here,” she says.

Slightly behind her, Billy looks fucking outraged. It’s like this has never happened to him before, like no one has ever blatantly ignored his existence. Steve slowly releases his fists, as he looks down at Kali.  

“Yeah, okay,” he says.

She smiles, just an upturn of the corner of her mouth. “Okay.”

Billy starts to say, “Who the fuck do you think -”

It’s only then that Kali glances over her shoulder, looking right at Billy. She lifts her hand a bit, waving it slightly. Then she strolls down the stairs, walking towards the student parking lot like she fucking owns the place. Steve is just about to trail right after her - like a fucking puppy or something - but takes one last glance at Billy before he does. Billy’s entire face has gone red and he stands still, frozen on the steps. Steve raises his eyebrows and glances down. There’s a wet spot spreading right over Billy’s crotch.

Steve can’t help the delighted smile that crosses his face. “Billy, did you just piss yourself?”

He doesn’t keep his voice down, because, well, why the fuck should he?

The last few stragglers coming out of the building stop where they are. It’s just a few more students and some of the teachers, but every single one pauses and stares baldly at Billy, who still seems incapable of moving. It’s only after a few titters of laughter reach Steve’s ears that Billy even reacts. He hunches over slightly, trying to cover the front of his jeans with his books.

“Mr. Hargrove! Mr. Hargrove! Are you alright?”

Steve doesn’t stick around to see what happens next. He practically skips down the steps and towards the parking lot.

Kali leans against his car, a cocky smirk on her lips. Steve can’t fucking help it when he grins back at her. He wants to start whistling, kind of, or twirling his keys around his finger or some corny shit. Instead, he just unlocks his car and slides into the driver’s seat. A few moments later, Kali gets into the passenger’s side.

Neither of them speaks until after Steve’s started the car, when it finally dawns on him again that they’re not actually friends, or whatever. He has no idea why she’s even here, in his car, picking him up from school.

“Wait, so -”

Kali interrupts him, turning in her seat to face him fully. “So, you approve of my powers when it’s convenient for you.”

The smirk is gone from her face and she just stares at him with those, big, impossibly dark brown eyes. There’s almost no inflection in her voice, but he thinks she’s really fucking angry. And he’s not sure why, but that bothers him, a lot.

“What? No,” Steve says. “Look, I’m - sorry?”

She doesn’t say anything, and his face burns slightly.

“I mean - Wait, no, I’m not sorry, actually,” he says. “Yeah, I hated it when you used your powers to set me on fire and to scare the kids. And yeah, I liked it a bit more when you used them to embarrass some jackass!”

She dips her tongue out, just for a moment. And then -

“Alright.”

He squints at her. “Alright.”

She nods, and turns in her seat so that she’s facing the front again. Her right leg comes up, leaning her heel against the dashboard. Some of her hair falls in her face as she starts digging around her jacket pocket. Steve just keeps staring at her, before nodding to himself, raising his eyebrows and frowning slightly. Kali pulls a pack of cigarettes out of her jacket with one hand. She begins to slap the bottom of the pack against the open palm of her other hand.

“Alright, alright,” he parrots.

She changes the topic. “I was hoping you could take me to the tunnels. The one you took the kids to, with the demon dogs.”

“Demo-dogs,” he says automatically.

Her hands still for a second. “What?”

“Demo-dogs, that’s what Dustin calls them,” Steve tells her. “It’s short for demogorgon dogs.”

She’s slapping the packet again, an eyebrow raised. “And the demogorgons are the flesh-eating monsters.”

He can’t tell if she’s joking or not, but a flash of annoyance goes through him anyway. He wants to ask her if she was even paying attention to what he, Nancy, and Jonathan had told her, like, at all. Because it might sound funny or made up, but in the face of those terri-fucking-fying things, none of this shit was funny. He also wants to tell her it’s a little hypocritical for her to imply - infer? Whatever the fuck - that the demo-dogs weren’t real or weren’t dangerous, considering she and her sister basically have mind control powers.

“Why?” he asks, instead.

She pulls one of the cigarettes out of the pack, sticks it in her mouth. “I need to see it for myself.”

“But why?” He’s tempted to pull the cigarette right out of her mouth, just to be fucking petty. “And no smoking in my car.”

He can’t tell, but it looks like she’s smiling around the cigarette. She nods slightly and then takes it out of her mouth, putting it back into its pack. She turns her head, looking straight at him again. He notices the bags under her eyes, and can’t tell if they’re more or less pronounced because of all the makeup she has smeared around her eyes. Her gaze is completely serious.

“I promise I’ll tell you, if you take me there,” she says. “No tricks, no illusions. Just straight up. Okay?”

He looks at her a minute longer.

“Yeah,” he says, shifting the gear into drive. “Yeah, okay.”

 

+++

 

The pumpkin field doesn’t look so different when he drives up to it.

Of course, last time it was the fucking dead of night and he was half concussed.

But as he slows the car down and then puts it into park, he has to remind himself to calm the fuck down. A thread of panic starts inching up his stomach and throat, and he tightens his grip on the wheel to keep his hands for shaking. All he can think about it traversing around in the dark with just a few fucking flashlights and a bandana over his face. Instead of the dead plants and grass before him, for just a flash, all he can see is the rush of demo-dogs running at him, and him jerking Dustin into his body, trying like hell to just save him, to just save this kid -

Steve’s breath hitches, and he closes his eyes. Kali breaks the silence that’s sat between them the entire ride over.

“This is it?”

He opens his eyes slowly, and then turns the car off, pocketing his keys. “Yeah. Well.”

She looks at him. “Well?”

“The tunnels run underneath all of Hawkins,” Steve says. “Uh - except for where the lakes are. And the quarry, and the river. But this is where I entered, and it’s the closest to the hub.”

“The important part of the tunnels,” Kali says, peering out of her window.

“Yeah.”

“How do we get down there?”

Steve leans over his the wheel, points towards a small patch of land that has a couple of wooden planks on top of it. Kali follows his line of sight, before glancing over at him. Steve smirks at her, before nodding his head towards the glove compartment.

“I’ll grab my bat, you grab the flashlight, bandanas, and goggles,” he says. “And watch out for the rotting pumpkins.”

 

+++

 

As he smashes down on the planks, making them splinter and break, Steve wonders if he’s just reopening the wounds on his palms. The skin stretches and pulls, and he knows he’s gonna have to change the bandages, regardless. He also realizes as he hits the planks, over and over and over again, that it feels fucking good. The thrill that he felt, smashing up Kali’s van the other night, comes back to him. The burn in his shoulders is a good ache, and he feels strong, powerful.

He tells himself not to worry about that, at least not right now.

Kali stands much too closely for his liking, arms crossed over her chest as she watches him work. A pair of his goggles is in her hands, but at least she has his red bandana wrapped around her nose and mouth. Steve doesn’t know if he’s more worried she’s gonna get a fucking splinter in her eye or if he’s worried that she might just push him down the hole and try to kill him. It’s pretty even, at this point.

Steve pauses and takes a breath. The bandana wrapped around his mouth tastes like sweat. He watches as Kali peers down into the hole he’s made. It should be big enough for them, if they go in one at a time. His heart pounds rapidly, so hard in his chest that he’s sure she can hear it in the quiet field. His mouth feels like cotton and for a moment, just a fucking moment, he wonders if they should be doing this at all. It’s one thing, when he’s trying to keep some shitheads safe after almost being beaten to death. It’s another thing, voluntarily going down there to fucking explore, or something. And - okay, he knows the gate is closed, alright? Nothing should be down there anymore, anyway, but dirt and old bones.

But.

There’s always a but.  

Kali clicks her flashlight on. “Let’s go.”

Before Steve can say anything more, she jumps down. He closes his eyes, turning his face towards the sun. He wants to remember this, that warm feeling and that light, even in this fucking winter cold. Just in case he fucking dies down there, in that massive ass graveyard full of spooky shit. You know.

He shoves his bat into his backpack - spiked side up, of course - and then looks down. He just wants to make sure Kali is out of his way, and maybe give himself a little bit of time to square up and fucking do it.

Then, he jumps.

 

+++

 

It surprises him, how different the tunnels look. No, not look, exactly - how different they feel.

Before, he had the constant feeling of being watched. The walls seemed slimy and every hair on the back of his neck stood up. Even the air felt wet and heavy, like being in a swamp, maybe. If that swamp just happened to have alligators that spit poison at you and came from another fucking dimension. Now, everything feels dry and almost ashy. The air is completely still and stagnant with the slight smell of sulfur. It makes him breathe just the tiniest bit easier.

Kali turns to him. “Can you show me the hub?”

He taps at his own goggles with the edge of his flashlight. “Safety first.”

He half expects her to roll her eyes at him, but she just nods once, and puts the goggles on her head. A clump of her hair looks like it’s tangling around the rubber strap; he reaches towards her, unthinkingly, to smooth it down. It’s only after he has her hair between his fingers that he realizes what he’s doing. He freezes and looks down at her.

She’s smiling at him - an actual fucking smile, not one of the smirks or the barely there mouth ticks - and standing very still, like she’s waiting for him to continue.

It surprises him, much more than anything else about her has, to date.

He shoves his flashlight under an armpit and then brings his other hand up. Gently, he pulls the strap away from Kali’s head with one hand, and threads his fingers down her hair with the other. Once everything looks all flat and okay, he backs away from her, making sure it’s all in place. There’s a slight reflective sheen on her goggles, so he can’t quite make out the look in her eyes, anymore. Not that seeing them really fucking did anything, anyway. Steve thinks she’s by far the most composed person he’s ever met, practically never giving anything away.

He thinks he’d really admire that if it didn’t fucking annoy and scare him.

He points his flashlight down the tunnel. “This way.”

The tunnel is barely big enough for one person to walk at a time, but Kali doesn’t march behind him. Instead she walks alongside him, matching his pace even though he’s so much taller than she is. With each step, her shoulder brushes against his upper arm, or his hand bumps gently against her wrist. As they go, he feels like they’re getting closer and closer. He’s sure part of that is his fault, cause no fucking way does he want other worldly tunnel dirt brushing against his clothes.

Kali pans her flashlight across the tunnel floor and Steve almost trips when the beam lands on a demo-dog.

She stops short; almost on instinct, Steve presses her behind him slightly, hand already going for his bat. It’s only after he stops to breathe that he gets a good look at the creature - or whatever the fuck it is, now. Because it’s definitely not alive, not anymore. It actually looks like a fossilized skeleton or some shit, the kinda thing you’d expect to see in a geology textbook about dinosaurs. There’s a bunch of empty nougat wrappers littered around the body.

“That’s Dart,” Steve tells her.

Kali peeks around him slightly. He feels her open palm pressing against his lower back as she does, like she’s holding onto him for leverage. It’s warm and kinda comforting, and he finds himself wanting to press back into her. But then - before he does something stupid - she takes a tentative step in front of him. She gets a little bit closer before crouching down. Her head cocks as she stares at the body.

Steve doesn’t know why he adds, “Or, I guess what’s left of him.”

She stands back up. “This isn’t good.”

“What does that mean?”

She just shakes her head before turning away from him. His heart lurches as she keeps walking ahead. He takes a few brisk steps to keep up with her. They only have to walk a few more minutes towards the hub. He can feel his pulse in all of his muscles, and it feels like it’s getting harder to breathe underneath his bandana.

Once they reach the hub, Kali hovers just outside of the opening. She slowly sweeps her flashlight over every inch, it fucking feels like, of the room. All of the decayed vines, looping around and between dirty bones are too hard to look at. Steve swallows hard when she shoots the beam upwards, towards the freaky flower thing that had sprayed all over Dustin. Now, it hangs like a burnt, dark clump. Kali stares up at it for a long minute.

“I had to be sure,” she says.

Steve looks at her, face half hidden by shadows. “Kali?”

She turns. “I’ve seen this before, in Chicago.”

Steve nods slowly and congratulates himself on not screaming or passing out or both. His entire body tingles and he doesn’t breathe for a few moments, just feels his heart banging against his ribcage. Kali just stands there, staring at him. The muscles in her face don’t twitch at all; the light never hovers from a shaking hand. But there’s something about her - her posture maybe, or the slight dent of her eyebrows - that makes him think she’s worried. Maybe even fucking scared.

His voice is oddly flat, sounding too far away in his own ears. “Let’s go back to the car.”

 

+++

 

Steve doesn’t get back into the driver’s seat, not right away. He stands just outside of it, ripping off the goggles and bandana from his face. As the sun sets, he puts his hands on his knees and sucks down large gulps of air. He’s breathing so hard that he doesn’t know if he’s even getting anything to his lungs; a few bright spots burst behind his eyes and there’s a flash of black. He tightens his fingers against his knees, hoping the sharp pain of his palms will keep him conscious. He can feel vomit crawling up his throat and he just keeps swallowing.

He’ll be damned if he fucking pukes.

Again.

When he finally raises his head up, certain that he’s not gonna be sick, he looks right at Kali. She’s staring at a point somewhere behind him, on the horizon line. She has a lit cigarette in her hand but it doesn’t look like she’s smoked any of it. There’s a long cord of ash just on the tip, flakes of it falling off and onto a blackened pumpkin below. His bandana has been pulled down, snugly wrapped around her neck and tucked underneath the black scarf.

She turns her head, catching his eyes.

Steve slowly stands up straight again, smiling at her.

Then, he screams.

“What the fuck do you mean, you’ve seen that in Chicago!” he points at her, even though he wants to do nothing more than rip out his own eyebrow hairs. “What the hell! What the hell!”

Kali brings the cigarette to her lips, finally, taking a quick drag before speaking. “Steve -”

“What the hell! Fucking – this is nuts -”

“You can keep yelling, but listen to me first,” Kali says.

“Yeah, you better fucking start talking, what the hell, oh fucking God -” He stumbles, leaning heavily against the car.

She says, “Not out here, though.”

He glares at her. “Kali, I swear to God -”

She shakes her head quickly, and points at his car. “In there, just in case.”

“Just in fucking case what -”

“It’s more secure,” Kali says. “Okay? Just - look. Just give me the keys.”

He doesn’t know why he does it. Probably because he’s scared shitless and half out of his mind, pretty sure he’s gonna black out at any moment. But he digs into his jeans pocket and tosses his car keys at her. Almost robotically, he goes around his car and slides into the passenger seat. He fits his bag down near his feet, carefully moving the bat so it’s leaning against the door. Then he stares ahead blankly, waiting for Kali to get into the driver’s side. He blearily notices as she tosses her cigarette into the grass first.

“Do you even know how to drive stick?” he asks.

She huffs, and it’s almost like a laugh. “Yes, Steve.”

She starts the car, and they drive off of the field. She turns right instead of left, and he’s about to ask where she’s going.

“I’m taking you to the policeman’s cabin,” she says, like she’s reading his mind.

Fuck, maybe she is.

“I don’t know where it is,” Steve mutters. “And his name is Hopper.”

She quirks her mouth up. “I think I can figure it out.”

Steve nods. “Yeah, yeah. Also, what the fuck?”

Kali adjusts her hands on the steering wheel. “You know about Brenner, yes?”

Steve frowns. “That guy you were talking about? Jane’s… father? Or whatever?”

“He’s not her father, but.” Kali nods. “Yes.”

“Okay...”

“Jane and I became sisters because we were both part of Brenner’s experiments. Hawkins Lab kept us in containment. I don’t know how many, but as far as I’ve found, there were fifteen us. All children, all stolen from our families.”

Steve thinks of the young boy, sliced open and electrocuted, in Hopper’s living room. “Experimented, like...”

“It’s how Jane and I got our gifts,” Kali cuts him off. “Powers. Whatever you want to call them.”

“Okay.”

“They did horrible things to us. I always promised myself that I would get out, and I would stop them,” Kali says. “And then one day, I did. I escaped. I… tried to live a normal life, for a while. Like the poli - like Hopper is trying to give to Jane. But it didn’t work out. They came for me, anyway.”

“Brenner?”

“And his lackeys,” Kali nods. “Ever since then, I’ve hunted them, just like they hunted me. Us.”

Steve’s stomach churns. “When you say hunt...”

“I find them, and I kill them,” Kali says.

“You… kill them.”

“Yes.”

She says it so matter of fact, without any kind of emotion behind the words. It’s as if Steve’s fucking asked her if she wanted to go get burgers for dinner. A morbid curiosity washes over him, and the question is out of his mouth before he can stop himself.  

“How?”

“How, what?”

“How do you kill them?”

Her mouth tightens. “I believe in justice, Steve, and -”

“No,” he cuts her off. “Not. Not like, morally.  I mean, how do you kill them?”

She goes completely quiet, and almost stiff in her seat. They approach an intersection, the traffic light flashing from yellow to red. Kali slows down the car and stops it. For a moment, Steve can’t even breathe, just stares at her. From this angle, he notices that the short hairs on the shaved part of her head are growing out. He idly wonders how often she has to shave it. She turns her head and stares at him. They breathe in sync.

“I shoot them,” she says, finally. “I have a gun.”

“So you just - ”

“Point it at them and pull the trigger,” Kali says. “Usually in the head.”

Steve should be shocked or maybe offended, he thinks. But instead, he’s not sure how he feels about this, and it’s really fucking him up. He’s already gone from not trusting this girl to thinking that maybe, just maybe, it’s alright to fucking murder people in cold blood. He wonders if he’s a bad person or if he’s just been so fucking desensitized from monster hunting. Yet the thought of doing that - just pointing a gun at someone and shooting them - makes his stomach churn a bit, as well. It seems too harsh, too blunt, maybe, especially coming from this small woman in the fading sunlight.

The light turns green, and Kali starts driving again. The muscles in her hand clench slightly on the clutch.

“I believe in justice, by any means necessary,” she says.

Steve doesn’t know what to say; he just gurgles a little.

“Do you have an issue with that?”

Steve wonders why she even cares, but says honestly, “I… don’t know.”

“Hmm.”

“I just think... shooting scumbags is a little extreme.”

“What? So you’d rather I tortured them with my mind?”

His breath catches in his throat and he considers the side of her face. She doesn’t take her eyes off of the road, but something twitches. And then, honest to fucking God, she actually smiles again. And that - it’s like a punch in his gut, but in a fucking good way. He finds his mouth stretching out too, grinning back at her. Then she’s chuckling, like they’re on a fucking date and he’s said something so dorky she can’t help but laugh at him. His grin widens, and he thinks, fuck, she has a beautiful laugh.

Wait.

What is he turning into, here?

What the hell is going on?

He finds himself saying, “Nancy has a gun, too.”

Her smile doesn’t flicker or fade. “Smart girl.”

“Yeah.”

She glances at him, now, eyes glittering. “And you have your spiked bat.”

“Well. Yeah.” he clears his throat. “So. You hunt the bad guys?”

The blank look slides back into place. “Yes. We had found a lot of the Hawkins men, but never Brenner.”

She doesn’t say it, but Steve feels like Brenner’s the one she really wants. That none of the other ones mattered, really, until he was dead. Steve nods along, carefully.

“Someone on my… crew found a lead, discovered that he was hiding in Chicago,” Kali says. “Working, in Chicago. There were a lot of rumors that he was starting up his experiments again. The kinda shit he did to me, to Jane.”

“Shit.”

“We trailed him for a few weeks, and lost him a few times. But eventually, I was able to get a photo. And eventually, I found where he kept disappearing to,” she says. “This one building, some industrial skyscraper, right by Lake Michigan.”

“And?”

Kali glances at him. “We discovered some tunnels, running around the lake. Almost identical to the ones here. Except… different. It’s like they’re alive, or something. Dark, damp, and -”

“Slimy,” Steve says, voice tight. “Full of vines.”

She nods. “One of my crew almost got trapped down there. Just barely made it out. I also saw these… monsters, these things, like the Dart…”

“Shit,” Steve mutters. “Shit, shit -”

“Brenner must have seen us going inside, or...” Kali shakes her head. “Hawkins soldiers were waiting for us, right outside the entrance. We were able to get away alive, thankfully, because...”

“Your powers.”

“Yes. But two of my people were injured, badly.” She pauses. “I made them all promise to leave, as soon as possible. Then, I started trying to find Jane again.”

“Fuck,” Steve says. “This is crazy. Shit, Kali -”

“I didn’t know that the same thing had happened, here,” Kali tells him. “Not until last night. All I could think about was getting Jane out of here, before he could find her.”

“This means - Brenner, or whatever, must have opened another gate,” Steve’s voice goes high. “Or - more than one, shit, what if it’s underneath all of Chicago, or it’s spread, or -”

“Steve -”

His breathing hitches, coming in harsh and fast. Black dots dances in front of his eyes. “Shit, I thought this was over, I thought -”

“Steve!”

Kali slams on the break. Steve bucks forward, throwing his hands out to stop himself from hitting the dashboard, or fucking worse, going through the windshield. Sharp, stabbing pain throbs through his palms and he lets out a string of curses. The pain distracts him from his diatribe, but it hurts so much he just wants to let out a howl of agony. He can only breathe a small prayer of thanks that his hands - his face, his fucking heart - didn’t land on the spikes in his bat.

“You focused, now?” she asks.

Before he can stop himself, he whips his head, snapping, “Jesus Christ!”

“Wrong god,” she says, eyebrows twitching.

It takes a moment for his brain to catch up. “Wrong - fucking - Kali!”

He thinks, for a moment, that he was right to be weary of her. She truly must be trying to kill him. Goddess of death, fucking right. Shit.

“Steve, look,” her voice is softer now, serious again. “I came here to protect Jane. I had no idea that it was this bad, any of it. But.”

“But?”

She says, “Brenner is dangerous, not only to my kind, but to everyone. We have to stop him.”

Steve says nothing.

“If Jane closed one gate before, she can do it again,” Kali says. “I need to take her to Chicago, and I need your help. All of you.”

Steve closes his eyes, grateful that Kali’s the one behind the wheel. He takes a slow, steadying breath; he thinks about having to face down more demo-dogs and monsters and shady government agents with fucking flamethrowers.

He remembers when he was younger, playing with G.I. Joes. He always thought it was just a bunch of fun and games, pretending that there was a war in his bedroom and that his Joe was impenetrable. He always thought it would be so cool, to go off and just fucking fight, be down in the trenches, be bloody and glorious.

How fucking stupid he was.

“Steve.”

He opens his eyes. “Hmm?”

“Steve, do you know why I’m telling you this?”

She flicks the turn signal, and they’re turning into a dark driveway that’s more like a patch of flattened dirt than anything else. Hopper’s pick-up and Kali’s van sit a few feet away from a cellar door. Steve looks up at a small, dark cabin that looks mostly abandoned. Kali stops the car, putting it into park and turning the engine off.

“It’s because I think you’re someone I can trust, “ Kali says finally. “And I tend to collect people I can trust.”

It reminds Steve of something Nancy had said to him, in passing, a few days before the Snow Ball. She mentioned she was volunteering with Jonathan, and asked if he would, as well. Steve had to snort back a laugh and a wince all at once. The sensation made him feel like he had heartburn. But instead he just shook his head and said no, just that he was driving Dustin.

Nancy had laughed, throwing her head back, asking when he started collecting middle schoolers.

Kali’s voice brings him back to the present. “Don’t prove me wrong, Steve.”

He looks at her. “Are you someone that I can trust?”

She lifts her head slightly. “I guess we’ll find out.”

And what the fuck can he do with that, besides get out of the car?

Steve sighs and stretches, before bending down to swing his bag onto his back. He closes the door behind him with a definitive click. He pauses by the car, waiting for Kali to get out too, before walking towards the cabin. Kali’s hand brushes against his arm, and Steve glances down at her. They’re walking extremely close again, just like when they were down in the tunnels. Kali doesn’t seem to notice at all; she’s frowning up at the cabin. All the lights are off, except for one yellow porch lamp. She slowly glances back at Hopper’s car, before taking a couple of steps towards the porch. She raises a hand at him, slowly. Steve stops walking.

“Steve,” her voice is so low he can barely hear her. “Steve, take out your bat.”

Steve reaches for his bat before he can think to ask why. Once it’s in his hands, he drags his gaze from the back of Kali’s head to Hopper’s front door. It’s then he notices that it’s cracked open, just a little bit. There’s a small creak as the wind blows on it. Steve’s heart begins to pound, and he can feel a low buzzing throughout his blood. Adrenaline.

“Your powers?” he hears himself asking.

Kali shakes her head, just the smallest movement. “It only works when I have a direct line of vision to the target.”

“Okay, that’s -” Steve nods. “Okay.”

He watches as she slowly moves her arms behind her back. Her hands go underneath her sweater - his sweater - and then pull a pistol out from the ban of her jeans. Steve’s eyes bulge as she brings her hands back around, holding the gun up high, near her face.

“So that’s just been there the whole time?” he hisses at her.

She shoots him a dirty look over her shoulder, before inching towards the door. Steve follows behind her closely, taking a step up onto the porch. His foot creaks on the wood; behind him, there’s a high-pitched shriek. Steve spins on his heel, almost tumbling down the stairs.

Hopper stands a few feet away from them. He’s slightly hunched over, making a loud, grating noise that reminds Steve way too much of the demo-dogs. Steve takes a step back and Hopper’s head pops up. He’s paler than Steve has ever seen him - or anyone ever, what the fuck - and sweat is pouring out of him. His eyes are red and at half-mast; even from a few feet away Steve can see that they’re crusted over. But the thing that scares Steve the fucking most are the thick, black veins protruding from Hopper’s forehead, cheeks, and neck.

“Holy shit,” Steve breathes.

“Steve,” Kali’s voice behind him is low, warning. “Steve -”

Hopper lets out another noise, and then crashes towards them.

Steve yelps, “Holy shit!”

He scrambles up the stairs backwards, trying not to bump into Kali. He swings his bat out at Hopper as he does, almost blindly. He’s breathing rapidly, and he’s not sure if he wants to hit Hopper or just scare him the fuck off. He glances quickly over his shoulder. Kali’s in the corner of the porch, her pistol only in one hand now. Her other hand is up, directed towards Hopper. Her face is etched in deep concentration, blood already dripping out of her nose.

“Kali,” Steve says warningly. “Kali!”

“It’s - there’s something wrong,” Kali says.

Hopper lifts his head, throwing his shoulders back. Steve swings his bat again. The nails on his bat snag onto Hopper’s jacket. Steve yanks the bat back, and then stabs his bat out, right towards Hopper’s torso. He makes another noise; this one is lower, sounding a bit like a whine. Dazed, he stops moving for a moment.

“There’s something - he’s not human, completely, right now,” Kali says. “I think - Steve, I -”

Steve jerks his head in Kali’s direction. “Don’t - Kali, whatever you do, don’t shoot, please -”

Kali glares right back at him. “I’m not going to shoot Jane’s father!”

Hopper makes another noise right as Steve turns his head again. Hopper throws his arms out, scratching and gnashing his teeth. Steve swings a little bit harder, his grip tightening, his palms on fire and his heart in his stomach. Hopper stumbles back from the force of the impact, going a few feet away from the stairs.

Kali curses. “I just need some more time - there’s something still in there, something -”

“Got any plans?” Steve asks, watching as Hopper starts to come back towards him.

“Yeah, I think -” he hears Kali’s sharp intake of breath. “I need you to distract him.”

Steve swallows. “Got it.”

“Get him away from the house,” Kali says. “If - and there! Towards the cellar. Near that tree -”

Hopper charges up the stairs and Steve begins to swing wildly again. He dances backwards, quickly and silently saying a thank you for all those fucking suicides he’s had to do for basketball practice. Hopper moves a little sluggishly, like he’s not one hundred percent in charge of his body. By the manic, glazed look in his eyes, Steve is convinced that he’s not. It’s a bit like the look he had when he was aiming his gun at Kali, only much, much fucking worse.

What the fuck?

Steve bashes his bat against Hopper’s shoulder, and then runs around him. Hopper howls and it grates Steve’s ears so much that his eyes water. But it does the trick; Hopper turns to lash out at Steve again, turning his back on Kali completely. Steve takes another swing, this time towards Hopper’s ribcage. Once Hopper stumbles back, Steve hops over the porch railing and falls into the grass. He lands knees-first, fist pounding into the dirt around his bat.

He scrambles to his feet just as Hopper growls and goes after him again.

Steve keeps this game up as he tries to lure Hopper towards the cellar door. He swings out, hitting Hopper as hard as he can, and then stumbles backwards, giving himself some time and keeping Hopper distracted. Steve prays that he’s not doing much damage, hopes that Hopper’s clothes are padded enough. Because even like this, even as this fucking monster, it’s still Hopper, okay? It’s still - it’s just still fucking Hopper.

Yet the more Steve hits him, the more he can see pinpricks of blood seeping through Hopper’s clothes. Steve grits his teeth, tears springing to his eyes. His hands and his shoulders are aching but he doesn’t stop. In the distance, Kali is chasing after them slightly, but keeping her distance. She moves swiftly on her feet, gun still one hand. Every where she steps, she places herself in Hopper’s line of sight, but keeps Steve between her and Hopper at all times.

Steve is only a few feet away from the cellar, feet tripping over themselves, when a fucking demo-dog appears behind Hopper.

“Kali, Kali run!” he screams, swinging his bat out again. “Kali -”

“Steve, shut the fuck up!” She shouts, voice sounding strained.

The demo-dog moves slowly, circling around Hopper. Steve can barely breathe and he shifts his feet, trying to plant his body more firmly. The demo-dog lets out a low whining sound. Hopper’s head snaps towards it. Steve squeezes the bat even tighter, heart going into overdrive.

Because this is fucking it, this is where he dies.

“Steve,” Kali says, sounding much closer than before. “Steve, put your bat down, open the cellar doors.”

He barely turns his head to look at her; he only sees a flash of purple hair. “Kali -”

She sounds close to tears. “Steve, that thing is me. The demo-dog. That’s me.”

Steve freezes.

In front of him, Hopper seems totally entranced in the demo-dog, like he’s just waiting for some orders. But instead of calling out to other monsters or turning to attack Steve and Kali, the creature just stands there, patiently turned towards Hopper. Steve’s grip slackens, and the bat drops a few inches down in his hands.

The longer he looks at the demo-dog, the stranger it seems. Like it’s… not quite right. The skin isn’t slick enough, the tail is too long, and its face is more circular. It looks as if someone who had only seen it briefly before – someone who hadn’t been up close and personal with it, its fucking terrifying mouth, and its horrifying stench – tried to replicate it.

“Holy shit,” he whispers.

“Thanks, but Steve, the cellar,” Kali says. “Steve. Please.”

The soft way she says please - a command and a prayer - makes Steve spring into action. He drops his bat and runs the last few feet to the cellar. He drops to his knees, dropping them hard onto the concrete around the door. There are a bunch of thick chains wrapped around it, and an open padlock looped through one of the hoops. Steve yanks them off and tosses them away. He grabs the handles with both hands and throws the doors open, just barely tumbling backwards to avoid getting slapped in the face. He practically crawls on his hands and knees, away from the stairs leading into the darkness.

Kali shifts and moves towards him. She drops the pistol into the grass below her and lifts both hands. Blood runs freely from her nostril, but she doesn’t even seem to notice. As her fingers twitch the demo-dog moves; Hopper follows it slowly, almost entranced. Steve sits on the grass, breathing hard and saying nothing, as the demo-dog goes towards the cellar. It runs down the stairs. Just a few moments later, Hopper makes another high-pitched call, and then follows it down. Steve watches until he can no longer see the top of Hopper’s head.

“The doors,” Kali gasps.

Steve throws himself back towards the cellar. He grabs onto both doors and slams them shut. He pushes his entire weight against it, frightened to hell that Hopper is going to crash right through them at any minute. He tries to blindly grasp around for the chain.

Suddenly Kali is there, the side of her body pressed up against his. She has the chain wrapped around her arms. Without even looking at Steve, she tosses one end to him. Together, they wrap the chain around the cellar handles. Kali hooks the padlock around one of the rings and clicks it closed.

An angry growl comes through the metal doors. Steve is almost jolted off by a pounding beneath him.

“We need something heavy, something to hold this down -” Steve gasps.

Kali nods, head popping up and looking around. She lifts one arm up, pointing a few feet behind Steve’s head. Steve glances up to see a wheelbarrow full of bricks and a few bags of cement.

“There, will those work?” she asks.

Steve’s up and running for the materials before Kali can even finish her sentence.

The wheelbarrow is almost too heavy for him to push. He has to throw his whole weight behind it, digging his feet into the earth and really trying to use his knees to lift everything. He lets out an aggravated yell as sweat pours into his eyes. He grits his teeth, telling himself to just make it, to just pull through, to just fucking do it -

“Get outta the way,” he gasps.

Kali just barely rolls away before Steve and the wheelbarrow tip over. The bricks all land on the cellar door. Steve lands on the side of his arm, a sharp sting running through his funny bone. Hopper’s growl comes through the metal again, but this time, the bricks only shudder a little as he bangs on the inside of the door. Steve pauses, waiting for another noise, another outburst. But everything is still; the quiet of the winter night stretches before them.

Steve lets out a weak laugh, and rolls onto his back.

He’s still alive.

He’s still fucking alive.

A few tears leak out of his eye and he tiredly moves his arm to brush them away from his face. Somewhere near his hair, he hears a small, hiccupping noise. Steve turns his face to see Kali, just a couple of feet away from him. She’s also lying in the grass on her back. He makes a small noise, and she turns her head to look at him. The blood coming out of her nose is just a slight dribble, but her eyes are filled with tears. Steve watches as she blinks rapidly, breath shuddering. Her dark eye makeup is smeared all over her face.

Steve reaches his arm out towards her. The bandages on his hands are soaked in blood, dirt and sweat, but Kali doesn’t even seem to mind. There’s no hesitation in her movements as she reaches back towards him. She places her palm against his; he laces their fingers together.

 

+++

 

He’s not sure how long they lay in the grass, the adrenaline draining from their bodies and the sweat rapidly cooling on their skin. But Steve’s entire hand tingles and he thinks that maybe there’s fucking something to sharing a trauma like this. It makes it a bit easier, staring up at the moon, to understand why Nancy and Jonathan feel the way they do about each other.

 

+++

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, please leave a comment if you can! I'd love to hear your opinions and theories!!! 
> 
> As you can see, many of you were right about Hopper's Tunnel Cough. But don't worry too much about Dustin - he's just coughing while playing D&D atm. He's mostly a-okay (for now...?) 
> 
> STAY TUNED!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW WOW WOW, you're all amazing, thank you for keeping the comments coming! They fuel my writing and also my energy! You're beautiful! Even when you're yelling at me about Dustin ;) 
> 
> I know this is tagged as slow burn but I got annoyed with my own damn self, so have some Kali and Steve goodness in this new chapter in the form of too many tropes! 
> 
> Please let me know what you think! I love reading all your reviews, please don't feel shy about even just leaving a bunch of keysmash comments!

+++

Kali pulls away first, slowly climbing to her feet. Steve tries not to groan and rolls around until he’s standing as well. Silently, he grabs his bat, watching as Kali locates her pistol in the grass. He says nothing as she tucks it back into the waistband of her jeans. They go into Hopper’s cabin; Kali pulls the door tightly behind them, latching all of the locks.

Steve wanders into the kitchen, ripping away the ruined bandages off of his palms with his teeth. His bat clatters onto the floor, and then he shrugs off his backpack - was he fucking carrying that around, the entire time? - as well. He bites down on his bottom lip, turns on the hot water faucet, and sticks his palms underneath the spray.

“Fucking - Christ!” he yelps.

Footsteps move behind him, but Steve keeps his hands under the faucet as the water runs clean, free of dirt and blood. Just as he’s about to move, Kali’s arm reaches around him. He half turns his head, not even realizing that she’d gotten so fucking close. From here, he can see the fine, dark hairs on her cheeks, like peach fuzz. Her hand switches the faucet off, yet she doesn’t move away. They both smell like rust and sweat. He can’t stop glancing down at her lips, anyway. Kali shifts, lifting her face up towards him.  

Part of him wants to ask if she’ll set him on fire again if he tries to kiss her.

The other part thinks he’s fucking crazy for even wondering about this.

The last part of him just doesn’t fucking care.

“Hopper, you there?” Joyce’s voice rings through the cabin.

Steve jumps; Kali takes a step away from him, looking towards the front door. His heart is pounding rapidly in his chest and all he can think is that he just almost fucking kissed her.

“Hopper? Hopper, you in?”

It sounds almost tinny, and no one has stepped into the cabin. Kali strolls out of the kitchen, her body looking as relaxed as it did when she had made Billy piss himself. Steve takes a deep breath, staying next to the sink for the moment. He moves to adjust his jeans slightly, face burning a little, before he follows Kali into the living room.

She’s standing in front of some kind of radio, with a coiled phone attached to it and a red light blinking. He wanders over just as she picks up the phone, clearing her throat as she does. She looks awkward, holding it, as if she can’t remember the last time she spoke on the phone.

“Hello?”

Steve shifts closer to her; the sound is loud enough that he can hear Joyce’s voice on the other side of the call.

“Hi,” Joyce’s voice is uncertain. “Hi, is this - Kali?”

Steve leans over. “And Steve, her Mrs. By - uhm, Joyce, hey.”

“Oh, hi,” Joyce says. “Hi, kids. Are you okay? Is Hopper in, yet? I tried calling him at his house but -”

A knot of dread settles in Steve’s stomach. “Uh -”

“- There was no response.”

Steve takes a deep breath through his nose. “Yeah, Joyce, Hopper’s here but he’s… not himself.”

Silence stretches over the line. “What does that mean?”

Kali’s voice is even. “Hopper tried to attack us.”

“He what?” Joyce’s voice goes high.

“We had to lock him in the cellar.”

“Look him in the cellar!”

“There’s - something’s really wrong with him, and I think you’d better get over here,” Steve says. “And - there’s something else, too. Something Kali has to tell everyone.”

He ignores the way Kali shifts and looks at him with the barest hint of surprise in her eyes.

Joyce asks, “Do you have your walkie-talking with you, Steve?”

“No.”

“Give me fifteen minutes,” Joyce says, and then hangs up the phone.

 

+++

 

She gets there in ten, with her car full of the little shits. Jonathan and Nancy drive up half a minute behind them. When Steve opens the door, he can barely look at Joyce. Heartbreak is clearly written all over her face, and her eyes are already rimmed red. Just behind her, the kids are all staring towards the cellar door, the bricks still piled high on top of it and relatively undisturbed. Will’s face is deathly pale and he looks close to fucking passing out. As everyone files past him to go into the cabin, Steve is surprised to see Dustin.

“Hey,” Steve pulls him aside, wincing as he touches the kid’s jacket, palms covered but fucking sore.

Kali had helped him apply new bandages silently, making quick, tight work of the wrapping. It had felt slightly awkward, sitting at Hopper’s kitchen table next to her. He kept clearing his throat to start talking - saying what, he had no fucking clue - but she wasn’t moving an inch. She just kept her head bent slightly, focusing on his hands in hers. It had been so fucking nerve wracking.

“Hey, Steve,” Dustin says, voice strained.

The knot in Steve’s stomach tightens. “You feeling any better?”

“No asshole, I feel even worse,” Dustin says.

“Then you shouldn’t be here, shithead,” Steve says. “You should be at home, in bed -”

“First of all, it’s D&D night, and I never, ever miss D&D night,” Dustin says. “Second of all, you locked Hopper in the cellar?”

Steve sighs. “Just get inside.”

They all pile into the living room again, and it’s like fucking déjà vu. Only now, he’s standing up, his hands on his hips, trying to figure out where the fuck to start talking. Jonathan has his arm around Will, hugging him tightly. Dustin coughs, covering his mouth with his sleeve. It’s wet and phlegmy. When he pulls away, Steve sees a dark spot of snot or something on his jacket. Max looks at him with disgust and scoots slightly away from him.

“What happened?” Joyce’s voice is strained.

Jonathan asks. “You guys look like you went to hell and back, are you alright?”

Steve glances at Kali, who’s sitting cross-legged on the floor. He notices tear in the inner thigh of her jeans and she’s still wearing his sweater. He swallows hard. He glances up slightly, towards Nancy, who’s looking at him with an odd look on her face. He can’t quite read it; it’s like a fucking mix of curious and downright scared. She catches his eyes and a small smile curls onto her face as her eyes dart towards Kali.

Kali and Steve’s fucking sweater.

Will’s voice breaks the silence. “It’s… it’s the Mind Flayer again, isn’t it.”

Joyce is already shaking her head. “The gate is closed, and you’re fine, sweetie, Jane closed the gate -”

Steve says, “Kali, I think you better tell them what you saw.”

 

+++

 

Kali’s voice is low and steady as she relays everything that happens. She keeps her hands balled up on her knees as she speaks. Steve wonders if it’s easier for her to show people what she knows, rather than tell them. He idly thinks it might be nice. That maybe she had her powers as a child, and used them to tell Jane bedtime stories. His mind drifts slightly, tiredness and pain overtaking the necessity of paying attention.

When Kali finishes, silence stretches around the room.

Then Joyce opens her mouth; the conversation that follows does not go well.

 

+++

 

“Kali, honey, how can you be sure -”

“Steve showed me the tunnels here. It has to be the same thing, especially if Brenner’s behind it.”

 

+++

 

“Will - Will, stop screaming, please, it’s going to be okay -”

“It’s going to come after me again, don’t you see! Don’t any of you see! It’s going to kill me and then kill us all -”

“Will! Will, kid, please -”

“We’re all going to die -”

“Oh God, Nancy, go to the bathroom, there should still be some of the tranq -”

“Don’t put me under!”

“Stop!”

“Please, please, Mom, no -”

“Okay, okay, baby, alright -”

 

+++

 

“You fucking - Steve, it’s fucking Hopper, he’s not a monster -”

“You don’t know! He was crazy, Nance, I was trying to protect -”

“God, why would you even -"

“You weren’t there, okay, but if you wanna go down into the cellar and fucking let him attack you, be my guest -”

 

+++

 

“He - shit. If there’s another gate open, he must be controlled by the Mind Flayer, or something. I -”

“Mom, mom please don’t cry -”

 

+++

 

“But how could this even happen? Hopper hasn’t been to Chicago -”

“Maybe it’s - something dormant inside of him? He spent a few days down in the tunnels, didn’t he?”

“He - oh God -”

“Joyce, Joyce, we got it out of Will, didn’t we? We can burn it out of Hopper, too -”

“No, no, it’s not like how it was with Will, he was fucking - sorry, he was -”

“Feral.”

 

+++

 

“Kali how did you...”

“Yes?”

“How did you know to… conjure… a demogorgon?”

“There’s something off about Hopper’s mind. Something dark, otherworldly, even.”

“The Upside Down.”

“Yes. I don’t know how to describe it, exactly. But it reminded me of the creatures I saw in the tunnels, and of Nancy’s stories -”

“About the demo-dogs?”

“Yes, and you said they have a herd mentality. So I thought -”

“If you made one, Hopper would listen to it!”

“Yes -”

“Whoa, that is so freaking awesome -”

“Lucas!”

“What?”

 

+++

 

“No, no. We all spent time in the tunnels, so I just - there has to have been something else, that turned Hopper into this… thing. Or else we all would be, soon, we all would be sick -”

 

+++

 

It’s then that Steve’s wandering mind crashes back down to earth. His heart stutters in his chest.

Max cuts herself off, eyes wide as she turns her head to look at Dustin. Steve’s breath catches in his throat, and he stares at the kid, too. Everyone in the room turns, and a heavy silence falls over the room. Dustin only stares back at Steve, his eyes wide. Dustin presses his lips together and his chest hitches, like he has to cough but is trying so, so desperately to just hold it in.

Oh, oh no.

Shit.

Shit.

“But we - we were all in the tunnels,” Mike’s voice is soft, scared. “We were all -”

Steve’s vision blurs, and for a moment, he’s back in the tunnels. Spores are everywhere and he can barely breathe, just trying to pick Dustin up off the ground. All he can see is the kid hacking and wiping at his face, eyes terrified after being sprayed.

“Dustin,” Steve says softly.

“No - no, don’t fucking - don’t -” Dustin’s voice shakes.

“He got sprayed,” Max says, eyes wide.

“Sprayed?” Nancy’s voice goes low.

Lucas speaks slowly. “In the hub, there was this weird thing, hanging from the ceiling, and it sprayed right into Dustin’s face -”

“Just like -” Joyce’s voice cracks.

“Just like what, Joyce?” Kali’s voice is gentler than Steve has ever heard it.

“Hopper was sprayed, too. He says that it knocked him out, and that’s how he got trapped,” Jonathan answered.

A few things start happening, all at once.

Will begins to shake, uncontrollably, as if he’s having a seizure. His breathing becomes labored and heavy, and his arm shoots out, almost smacking Mike in the face. Jonathan has to lunge to hold onto him as his body flails, almost falling to the floor. Joyce screams and Mike and Lucas crash into each other, trying to get to Will. Dustin hiccups, loud and wet, before jumping to his feet and storming out of the room. Max tries to chase after him, but Nancy stops her. She grabs Max around the waist and tries to tug her back, both of them toppling over onto the carpet. Steve trips off of his chair and sprints after Dustin, grabbing him just as he tries to unlock the front door.

“Hey, hey -” Steve tries to say, pulling on Dustin’s shoulders.

“Just let me leave, you asshole!” Dustin swears, hands reaching to claw at the locks.

Steve manages to just barely drag him away from the door. Dustin’s fingers bite down into his arms, pinching and trying to get Steve to let go. Steve only tightens his grasp on the flailing kid, forcing him to turn around. Dustin’s eyes are wide and scared, tears dripping down his face and green-black snot coming out of his nose. Steve bends down, dropping to one knee. It bangs against the wood, but he barely notices, just clutches Dustin towards him. After a moment, Dustin shoves his face in Steve’s neck, his entire body shaking as he cries.

“I don’t wanna turn into a Mind Flayer zombie!” he howls.

Steve’s muscles tighten around Dustin, and he tries to remind himself to just breathe through this, to just calm the fuck down. No matter how scared for - of – Dustin he is at the moment, he’s just a fucking frightened kid. A kid that Steve cares about, that Steve loves, that Steve is gonna fucking protect like his life depends on it.

“You’re not going to be a zombie,” Steve says.

“You can’t fucking promise me that -”

Steve squeezes him tighter. “Well, I’m promising you anyway.”

“Steve -“

“Listen here, you little shit, you’re not gonna turn into - whatever happened to Hopper, okay? You had your mask on, remember? It didn’t get you full on -“

“Don’t - don’t patronize me -“

Steve pulls away slightly, just so he can look Dustin in the eyes. The kid’s already staring back at him, lips trembling.

“You’re ten times smarter than me, asswipe, I couldn’t patronize you if I tried,” Steve tells him softly.

He knows it’s bad when Dustin doesn’t react. No smile, no sarcastic comment, fucking nothing but another sniff.

“You’re going to be fine. I’m going to make sure of that, okay?” Steve swallows. “Even if I have to go to the Upside Down by myself and bash that thing’s head off. I won’t let it get to you.”

Dustin just buries his face inside Steve’s neck again.

 

+++

 

They must’ve stayed by the door for at least an hour before Steve feels a light tap on his shoulder.

Nancy looks down at them, mouth twisted like she’s trying to put a brave face on but can’t manage to make herself lie like that. Steve nods up at her, before gently disentangling himself from Dustin. Dustin sniffs, not looking at either of them, before scrubbing at his face with his sleeve.

When Steve turns to face Nancy fully, his eyes land on the doorway instead. All the kids are piled in the frame, looks of concern etched into their faces. For what isn’t the first time - and he realizes with dread that it won’t be the last - Steve thinks that they’re all much, much too young to have those looks on their faces. He sighs sharply, because, fuck, he’s too young to have a face like that, too.

Will is the first one to step up, wrapping his arms around Dustin. “Don’t worry. The Mind Flayer didn’t keep me, and it won’t keep you either.”

Lucas goes next. “We’ll keep you safe, Dustin.”

Mike nods resolutely. “We’ll get it out of you. We can’t let all our research go to waste.”

Max punches Dustin in the arm. “Yeah, Dustin. Friends keep each other safe from the Upside Down.”

Dustin smiles, something small and real for the first time all night. Steve’s heart swells with pride by how fucking mature and just kind and loving these shitheads are. He reaches out, shaking Dustin’s cap on his head. Dustin ducks away, glaring at Steve and trying to bat his arm away.

“Okay, enough,” Dustin says, voice only trembling slightly.

Lucas’s arm is still slung over Dustin’s shoulder.  “Come on, Dustin. We got work to do.”

“Yeah,” Mike nods. “We can’t figure out how to destroy the Mind Flayer without our bard.”

Steve glances at Nancy just as Jonathan comes out of the living room. Jonathan is smiling, a look that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. He jingles some car keys in his hands, and Steve realizes they go to Joyce’s mini-van.

“Alright, guys, let’s get going,” Jonathan says.

Max asks, “can I pick the music? Your stuff sucks.”

Jonathan’s eyes bulge for a moment. “Hey -“

Will snatches the keys and trips towards the door. “I call shotgun!”

As they all scramble towards the door, Nancy catches Steve’s eyes and inclines her head towards the living room.

“Jon, give me a minute,” she says.

Jonathan nods and Steve nods back at him. Jonathan claps him on the shoulder - and where the fuck did that just come from? - before following the kids outside. Steve stands in the foyer just for another moment, before going back into the living room with Nancy.

The scene in front of him is surprising.

Joyce sits on the couch, elbows on her knees and her head cradled in her hands. Kali kneels in front of Joyce, head bent towards her hair. One hand is on Joyce’s forearm, and the other is on Joyce’s knee, fingers cupping around her elbow. Steve can’t hear what she’s saying, but it’s low and in comforting tones. Joyce nods once, her head still in her hands.

Nancy makes a small noise - Steve always called it her interrupting cough - and hovers in the doorway. Kali glances over her shoulder as Joyce looks up. Kali’s eyes meet Steve’s before she stands up, patting Joyce on the back one last time.

“Joyce, you okay?” Steve asks, moving further into the room.

She wipes at her eyes with the pads of her fingers. “Yes, it’s - yes. How’s Dustin?”

Steve sighs. “Scared, but trying to be brave.”

“They shouldn’t have to carry this burden,” Joyce shakes her head, slumping. “None of them. You think you’re a good parent, and then...”

Nancy frowns and takes a step forward. “Joyce, you’re an amazing mom. Last year, you never gave up on finding Will, and this year, look at everything you’ve done, you saved him -”

“Thank you, Nancy, but -”

Kali interrupts her. “No parent can protect their children from everything, Joyce. It’s not a reflection on you, but on the world. You’re doing the best you can, with what you have. And no one can blame you for that.”

Joyce sighs. “Yeah. Yeah.”

Nancy clears her throat and shifts. “I’m sorry, Joyce. But about the plan -”

“Right,” Joyce nods. “Right.”

“What plan?” Steve asks.

“We all agreed that there’s… not much we can do before Jane returns,” Kali answers. “So we’re just going to have to wait it out until Saturday.”

Steve puts his hands on his hips. “Yeah, okay. But Dustin can’t go to school like that. Hell, the other shi- kids can’t either -”

“They have off tomorrow, it’s a Grading Day at the middle school,” Joyce says. “That’s why they were all over for their game. They were going to stay the weekend, anyway.”

Steve opens his mouth and then snaps it shut. As far as plans go, this is probably the best thing to happen. Steve can only imagine the fucking headaches that would happen, trying to come up with lies for the kids’ parents.

“This way Jonathan and I can also… monitor Dustin,” Nancy says.

Steve’s brain catches on the phrase. “You and Jonathan?”

Nancy nods quickly. When she speaks, it’s fast, like she’s ripping off a Band-Aid. “Joyce is going to stay here, to make sure Hopper doesn’t get out. And Jonathan and I are taking the kids back to the Byers’s. He and I can watch Dustin.”

“Jonathan and Nancy were both there, with Will,” Joyce adds. “They’ll… know what to do.”

A feeling of uselessness washes over Steve. “And what can I do? Joyce, do you want me to stay here with you?”

Joyce shakes her head. “No, no, I got everything here. Steve, you go home, stay by your walkie-talkie.”

“Joyce -”

“Don’t worry, Steve,” Kali interrupts, lifting her head slightly. “I’ve been sidelined, too.”

Steve frowns. “What?”

Nancy takes a step, shaking her head quickly. “That’s not it - look at both of you, you’re wrecks. You've been through the ringer tonight and need showers, hot food, and a good night’s sleep.”

Joyce nods. “I can watch for Hopper tonight, you two get going.”

Steve squints. “Both of us, get going. Get going where?”

Nancy glances at Joyce. “We thought Kali could stay with you, just for the night. Your parents barely notice when you’re home, they probably won’t even -”

Steve nods, cutting her off. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Steve, I didn’t mean -”

“No, it’s fine,” he says, not looking at Nancy. “They’re away this weekend, anyway. Conference in Indianapolis.”

Steve hadn’t even remembered until he had woken up this morning. There was nothing but a note on the fridge - _getting an early start, be back Tuesday. Love, Mom and Dad_ \- and a few $50 bills stuck underneath it. This time last year, his first instinct would’ve been to throw a party. This year, he had just eaten a slice of toast and almost forgotten to lock his front door on the way out.

Joyce is speaking. “ - You off. I don’t know if either one of you should be driving.”

“We’ll be fine, Joyce,” Kali says. “I’ve been behind the wheel in worse conditions than this.”

She holds her hand out, and without really thinking, Steve digs into his jacket pocket. The zippers brush against his palms, and there’s a sharp sting of pain. But then his keys are in his hands; without hesitation, he tosses them to Kali.

 

+++

 

“Welcome to my house, I guess,” Steve says.

Kali should look out of place, he thinks, standing in his kitchen with the fucking rose-printed curtains. But she looks relaxed, toeing her shoes off and kicking them towards the door. He stays mostly still, his hands in his jacket pockets, as she removes her own jacket, scarf, and his bandana, placing them neatly on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. She has a backpack with her too, a raggedy Jansport that she had taken out of the van. That she keeps in her grasp, glancing around the kitchen.

Steve tries not to think about the last time he had a girl alone in his house with him.

Nancy had mostly just wanted to curl up in his bed and sleep; she had only gotten up twice in thirteen hours. The first time was to use the bathroom - pausing only long enough to kiss his forehead - and then it was to eat leftover meatloaf. They had sat on the countertop and didn’t bother using forks. It had been nice but also kind of lonely. Nancy kept staring off into space, and when Steve had questioned her about it, she only said it reminded her of a sleepover with Barb.

Steve clears his throat. “We don’t really have food in the house, but I could order a pizza. Or run out for KFC -”

“Steve,” Kali cuts him off. “Can we talk about that later? For now I really just want a shower. Bathroom?”

“Yeah, yeah right,” he says. “Follow me.”

He walks almost stiffly, pointing out different areas of the house like he’s a fucking tour guide. There’re the carvings marked into the living room doorframe, measuring his height each year until he turned sixteen; there’s the burn mark on the hall carpet from when his dad wouldn’t take him camping, so he played ranger and tried to make his own campfire in the house instead. Her footsteps slow down on the staircase, and he looks over his shoulder to see her staring at the photos hanging up on the wall. He grins when he notices her slight smile at his first grade photograph, with his too-large sweater vest and his two front teeth missing.

“And here’s the bathroom,” Steve says outside the doorway. “This is the one I use, anyway. My towel’s the green one, washcloth is black. All my soap and shampoo is in there -”

“And your hairspray?” she peeks her head inside the bathroom.

He huffs. “Yeah, that too.”

“Aqua Net?” she asks.

“What? No!”

She smiles. “Yeah, okay. I’m going to snoop, so I’ll know if you’re lying or not.”

He doesn’t know why he finds that so damn charming, but he does. Maybe because he’s surprised that she’s admitting to going through his shit. He’s always just assumed that was something everyone did but never actually, you know, talked about.

While he’s thinking about how fucking cute it is - and berating himself cause there’s more important shit happening, Christ, Harrington, zombie Hopper’s literally trapped in a cellar - Kali shoves him out of the way and goes into the bathroom. He barely has time to blink before she shuts the door in his face, the lock on the handle clicking definitively.

He clears his throat. “You - you need a towel, or a change of clothes, or something? I can throw your stuff in the laundry while you shower -”

Steve hears the shower spray turn on. “You think I travel without a change of clothes?”

He raises his eyebrows at the door. “You are wearing my sweater -”

“Not anymore,” is her slightly muffled reply.

Steve rubs his hand across his face and mouth, thumb catching on his lip as he takes in the implication that Kali is getting naked in his house. It’s fucking absurd, he knows - he’s had naked women in his fucking room before, naked women that he’s undressed, alright - but for some reason, this has his feet glued to the floor. And okay, duh, he knew, logically she’d be naked, cause who the fuck showers with clothes on? But now that she’s fucking in there, shower running -

The click of the doorknob resounds in Steve’s ears.

He jumps back, startled, just as the door opens swiftly. An arm thrusts a bundle of clothes in his direction. Steve doesn't move for a minute, still trying to get his fucking brain in order. Kali’s head and one shoulder pop out from behind the door, and all he can see is brown skin. His eyes linger on her neck; she still has her fake pearl necklace on.

“Burning these would probably be the better option, but if you’re already tossing a load in,” she says.

“Uh - ” Steve’s eyes pop to Kali’s face. “Uh. Yeah.”

“And a towel would be nice,” she says. “A washcloth.”

“Clean ones are in the basket under the sink,” he tells her.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Yeah.”

They just look at each other for a moment; as Steve begins to nod at her, trying to think of something to say, she rolls her eyes. She shakes the bundle at him, eyebrows raising high near her hairline. Steve steps forward and takes it from her. Then the door shuts in his face for the second time in five minutes.

“Right,” he says, more to himself than anything else. “Right. Okay. Laundry.”

 

+++

 

He sits at his desk, _Pride and Prejudice_ open on his desk and a pencil stuck somewhere in his hair.

He’s not even fucking sure why he’s trying to focus on this homework. With everything happening he knows it’s fucking stupid, and he’s 90% sure he’s skipping school tomorrow, anyway. But doing this - doing something normal - is helping him to calm down. Helping him to maybe rationalize that the reason why he’s so suddenly wrapped up in Kali is because they almost died together not even fucking three hours ago. All this romantic shit, yeah, it’s just his hormones going into overdrive or something. He’s pretty sure that’s a thing.

The floorboards near his room creak, and he looks up.

Kali walks through the doorway without hesitating. Her hair is wrapped up in a off-white towel, and he wonders if he’ll have to throw it out, if her hair dye is going to stain it. She’s also wearing unusually normal pajamas: a long pair of blue and green plaid pants with a matching button-up shirt. It looks like the kind of shit his mom would get his father for Christmas. She nods at him before tossing her bag across the room and plopping on his bed like it’s hers. Before he can stop himself, he thinks that he likes that about her. That she kind of just does things like she belongs; she moves with purpose, with self-assurance -

She nods at him. “What is that?”

It takes him a moment to realize she’s asking about the book splayed open on his desk. He tells his stupid brain to shut up and to stop thinking about the girl who literally - kind of - set him on fire like this.

“Pride and Prejudice,” he says. “Required reading at Hawkins High.”

“Ah,” she says. “Well. As far as dead white British women go, Austen is probably the best.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “You know her stuff?”

“Just because I’m a science experiment outlaw doesn’t mean I’ve been living under a rock,” she says.

Steve backtracks. “No, I just meant - didn’t you grow up, like, in captivity -”

“Like a monkey?” she tilts her head.

“No - shit, I meant - in the Lab,” He finishes lamely. “I just assumed the Hawkins guys didn’t care too much about your knowledge of classic literature while they tortured you.”

She huffs. “You can say that again. But I can read, you know. Chapter books and everything.”

“No, yeah. Sorry.”

She stares at him for a few more moments, like she’s debating telling him something or not. He shrugs, blinking back at her, like he’s answer her question - _I don’t know, it’s up to you what you wanna fucking say_. She must find her answer in his shoulders because she huffs again, this time smaller and with the hint of a smile.

“My... ” She pauses. “I had an English professor, just like Jane has her police officer. Madge's specialty was early 1800s British literature.”

Not that Steve would ever fucking wanna be a professor, but if had to choose something to teach, it definitely wouldn’t be that. Wary of insulting Kali, he just nods, tries not to have slightly surprised look on his face. Cause logically, he knows there’s something else going on here. Something special; it’s important that Kali is telling him this, sharing a part of her life that he can guess she doesn’t talk about much. To anyone.

Shit, they really must have bonded in their zombie trauma.

“Pride and Prejudice was one of her favorite. She would always lecture about how the most important message is that someone’s morality doesn’t necessarily come from the environment they grew up in,” she smiles, “but that it comes from their choices. And that is what character is truly made out from. Choice.”

Steve nods. “Yeah, yeah, okay. I see that.”

She’s smiling so fondly that he’s almost not sure that she’s talking to him, not anymore. He clears his throat, gently shutting the book on the desk. He recognizes the look on her face. The one where you’re thinking about better times, where you wanna be happy but you also kinda wish you could tell your younger self to appreciate it before it all goes to shit.

It’s not the kind of thing you really want to go through with another person in the room.

“I’m gonna -” he gestures towards the door, towards the bathroom.

“Yeah,” she says, eyes growing sharp as she stares at him. “You reek.”

 

+++

 

It takes him longer than usual to shower, because he doesn’t want to undo all of the bandages Kali has helped him putt on earlier. He ends up leaving the shower, water running and only a towel wrapped around his waist, to grab a couple of plastic grocery bags from the kitchen downstairs. He silently prays a quick word of gratitude that Kali doesn’t appear when his towel slips down his hips and almost falls off entirely. Once he’s back in the bathroom safe, he wraps the plastic bags around his bandages and soaps himself down as well as he can. Even if he can’t scrub at his scalp like he likes to, at least the water is running clean and he smells halfway decent once he turns the faucet off.

He creeps back into his room, still weary of making too much noise even though he knows his parents aren’t home. But once he opens his bedroom door, the sight before him makes him pause.  

Kali is asleep on his bed, facing the doorway. Her hair has mostly escaped from its towel, and her arm is curled around his copy of _Pride and Prejudice_. Her face is actually less relaxed than he’s ever seen her; it’s curled into a frown, her brow heavy and her mouth turned down. Steve stands like a statue, just looking at her, wondering slightly if he’s being a fucking creep. Part of him knows he should just go sleep on the couch, or in his parents’ room, but he’s feeling kinda petty. He’s had a long fucking day and it’s his bed, alright? She should be sleeping on the couch. Or at least pretend to argue with him, both of them knowing she’s gonna get the bed anyway.

She groans and stretches; even from where he stands, he can hear the pop in her back. Her eyes open slightly, half hooded.

“You gonna stand there all night or you coming to sleep?” Her voice is low and only half-awake.

He says, “I would, but you already claimed my bed.”

Her eyes open a little bit wider, and she stares at him. She looks so much younger without any makeup on, he thinks. Younger and more vulnerable. She snorts, and then rolls over on her other side. He thinks that’s the end of the conversation and leans in to close his bedroom door.

“I think we’re old enough and mature enough to share the bed, Steve,” she says.

Steve raises his eyebrows, staring at the soft lines of Kali’s back. His blankets are down near her waist, and her pajama shirt has hiked up slightly. More of her hair has fallen out of the towel. It already looks like it’s been drying weirdly, parts of it curly and other parts of it heavy and wet.

He shifts his weight, not moving from the doorway. He doesn’t know what the fuck to do and he’s terrified that whatever choice he makes is gonna be the wrong one.

She speaks again, her voice softer. “I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”

He sucks in a breath; he’s floundering here. He has absolutely no fucking idea what to do with that, either. That quiet, gentle admission. He thinks he’s in deep fucking trouble, because the longer he hangs out with Kali, the more she reveals about herself. And the more she does that, the more interested he becomes in learning everything about her. But it’s more than that, too. Because now, he wants to share things about himself, the kind of things he’s been pushing down because he’s been feeling so fucking alone lately.

It’s on the tip of his fucking tongue to tell her that he never likes sleeping alone, not after all the shit that went down. He wants to tell her that he’s fucking horrified about what happened to Hopper and scared shitless over Dustin; he wants her to know that all he really wants to do is curl up with her and pretend that everything’s okay. He thinks that maybe they can even pretend that they’re just two people who care for each other - maybe even love each other - and are just sleeping intertwined because they want to. Not because everything is fucking awful and it’s wishful thinking that a warm body beside you will keep the nightmares at bay.

He clenches his fists slightly, just enough to feel a throb of pain. Just a little something to keep him centered so he doesn’t go spilling his fucking guts out.

“Yeah, alright,” he says.

He moves around the room slowly, preparing for his nightly rituals. He locks his bedroom door and places the chair underneath the knob. He gently closes the window, using his elbows to push it down all the way. Painstakingly, he re-tapes it, trying not to get sticky residue all over his bandages. He closes his curtains tightly, and then digs through his nightstand for his walkie-talkie. He slowly turns the volume up, weary that there might be voices on the other line. But it’s completely quiet, just the gentle hiss of static. After moving to turn off the light, he stands by the switch for a moment. He takes a deep, calming breath, just staring at Kali.

“Your knife is still under the pillow,” Kali says, her eyes still closed. “I didn’t move it.”

“Yeah?” he says. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

He circles around to the empty side of the bed. He tosses _Pride and Prejudice_ to the floor and then sits at the very edge. For a moment he doesn’t move and barely breathes, just tries to get used to the idea that he’s about to sleep next to this strange girl. Steve glances over his shoulder to look at her; her breathing is steady and her back is still to him.

Well.

Fuck it.

He lays down on his back, tugging some of his blankets off of her and towards him. His bed isn’t small - thank God for that mattress upgrade for Christmas, thanks Dad, for once - but he’s still hyper aware of the lack of space between them. Her hair is spilling everywhere and he only has two pillows, both of which are under her head. He shifts slightly closer to her; her hair smells like his shampoo, but her neck still fucking smells like Irish Spring.

He finds himself asking, “And your gun?”

It’s quiet for a moment.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

He snorts. “Yeah, Kali, that’s why I’m fucking asking.”

She rolls over, facing him, in lieu of responding. She lifts her head up slightly, pushing one of the pillows towards Steve. He grabs it, folding it in two, and then places it behind his head. Kali watches him as he does so, dark eyes flitting across his face. Steve’s not sure what to do with his hands, now. He ends up crossing them on top of his chest; it kinda reminds him of how vampires in movies lie in coffins. He shifts again, placing them down at his sides. He wonders if his right hand is too close to Kali’s thighs.

“Steve, I need to thank you, for tonight,” Kali says, breaking the silence. “Taking me to the tunnels, but especially with what happened with Hopper.”

“It wasn’t anything,” Steve says automatically. “It was - you know. Nothing.”

She snorts. “That wasn’t nothing, Steve.”

“Yeah.”

“You do that a lot, you know,” she says.

“What?”

“Make non-committal noises when you’re uncomfortable,” she says.

“Hmm.”

“It’s also the second time you’ve called yourself nothing after you’ve done… something,” she says.

He stares up at the ceiling. His heart is pounding too hard, almost painfully, in his chest. He thinks about their first meeting - Y _eah. I’m Steve. God of nothing_ \- and can’t fucking believe that was just two days ago. Wait, or last night? Whatever the fuck, it happened in the middle of the fucking darkness and he thought he was gonna die, and now he’s in bed with the girl who can turn invisible.

Actually, he’s being like, fucking analyzed or something by the girl who can turn invisible. And who can make him think he’s on fire, and make some shithead bully piss himself and convince a zombie Hopper that a demo-dog wants him to go down into a cellar. And whom he was thinking about kissing just a few hours ago even though they both smelled horrible and just trapped a man in a cellar.

Shit.

“I couldn’t have gotten Hopper into the cellar without you,” she says.

“Same to you, you know,” Steve says.

“I know.”

“Oh. Well, good.”

“It was brave. And incredibly stupid.”

“I know.” He snorts, finally turning his head to look at her. “Can I ask you a question?”

She smirks at him and he wonders if she’s gonna say _you already did_. But she just nods instead, cheek rubbing against his pillow.

“Do you carry around a bar of Irish Spring in your bag?”

Her eyes widen in surprise and she starts laughing. It’s a low, raspy rumble that Steve feels on his side of the bed. He likes it, this spontaneous joy.

“That’s the question you want to ask me?”

“What?”

“You have a woman in your bed with mind control powers and you ask her if she carries around her own soap,” Kali shakes her head. “Amazing.”

“What did you think I was gonna ask you?”

She shrugs. “The usual questions. How my powers work, what I did after I escaped Hawkins, if this is even what I really look like.”

“Do people ask you that?” Steve raises an eyebrow. “You know, if this is how you look.”

“I can make anyone see anything I want them to see,” she says. “Once they learn about my powers, whether or not I’m hiding my true looks is something that comes up often.”

Steve admits to her, “It did cross my mind, but only because you hair always looks so perfect.”

She - honest to fucking God - snorts. “You should be talking.”

“Well, you have magic, or whatever,” he says. ”I just have Farrah Fawcett spray.”

“I know,” she grins at him.

He smiles back at her, thinking that this whole thing is so ridiculously normal. “So.”

“Hmm?”

“You think my hair is perfect?”

Kali rolls her eyes and then turns so that her back is to him again. The smile on his face stretches into a grin and he just looks at the back of her head. He wonders how long it’s gonna take her to get all the tangles out of her hair in the morning.

“I do carry around my own soap,” she says after a minute.

“Really?”

“I have to stay moving,” she says, “and there’s often not a lot of time to go shopping. So I carry necessities with me.”

“Makes sense,” he says. “You know, that hunter lifestyle.”

“Yeah.” She huffs. “But...”

“But?”

“It’s always Irish Spring because that’s what my father used,” she says. “My biological father, not Brenner. It’s the only thing I really remember about either of my parents.”

“Oh,” he says.

“Smell is the strongest memory-triggering sense,” she says. “It can bring up a whole host of emotions in ways that just hearing or seeing something can’t.”

There it is again, Kali sharing something small and intimate with him. There’s no conceit behind it. She says everything softly, like she wants him to know how much it matters to her, how meaningful it is that she’s even saying anything. Steve feels the weight of the omission behind it. He watches as she lifts a hand to her face and then brings it back down, like she's brushing a tear away.

He tells her, “that thing, that sprayed Dustin? It was… the smell was all over him. It was sticky and sweet, you know, like really strong. A few weeks ago, my mom came home wearing a new perfume and I was so, so fucking scared for a moment that I almost threw up on her.”

“I hate hospitals because of the antiseptic,” she says. “It makes me feel dizzy, trapped.”

She doesn’t explain anything more, and Steve’s smart enough to connect the fucking dots.

 

+++

 

“Steve? Steve?”

Jonathan’s voice breaks through Steve’s dream like a haze. His mouth is half open and it feels like there’s dried drool all over his chin. His pillow is on the floor and most of Kali’s hair is draped over his face. His right forearm and wrist are trapped underneath Kali’s neck, but they’re not cuddling, not exactly. Steve is still laying on his back, his left leg falling off of the bed. Kali is curled into a ball facing him, obnoxiously loud snores and grunts right in his ear. How that didn’t wake him the fuck up really tells him how exhausted he was when he fell asleep.

“Steve, you there?” Jonathan’s voice comes through even louder.

It takes Steve a moment to realize his walkie-talkie is going off. Kali groans and shifts, rolling all the way onto her stomach and burying her head underneath a pillow. Steve yanks his arm back, trying to shake the sleep out of his muscles.

“Steve, answer the damn thing already,” Kali grumbles.

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve sighs.

He scoots closer to Kali and leans over her, trying to get to his nightstand. It takes his fingers a few moments to grasp the handle and yank it open. His fingers bump against all the shit in the drawer until he grabs the walkie-talkie. He grips it a little too hard, not conscious enough to be weary with his palms, and almost smacks himself in the face trying to answer it.

“Yeah? Yeah, Steve here,” Steve yawns, pressing his thumb down on the button.

“Steve,” Jonathan sounds relieved.

In the background, the little shits are yelling their heads off. But they sound excited, not scared, so Steve droops a little over Kali’s body. She shifts underneath him, making another noise. Her hand swings back, trying to slap his hair. He kinda wants to nuzzle his face into her back and go to sleep again.

Her pajamas are really fucking soft, okay?

“Time’s it?” Steve asks, half pressed into Kali.

“Almost six,” Jonathan answers. “But Steve -”

“Ugh,” Kali mumbles into the mattress.

“ - Just got a call from Joyce,” Jonathan says. “Dr. Owens and Jane are at the cabin.”

Steve doesn’t register the words, but Kali does. Before his eyes can even flutter closed again, Steve’s being shoved off of Kali. He falls backwards, almost sliding to the floor and losing his grip on his walkie-talkie. It bounces onto the bed and almost crashes to the floor. Steve blearily watches as Kali scrambles around, arm shooting out to grab the walkie-talkie. She sits up on the bed on her knees, holding onto it like a lifeline.

“Jane is - Jane is here? In Hawkins? She’s -” Kali’s voice is too loud, frantic.

“Kali? Yes,” Jonathan sounds confused. “Uhm. We’re heading over there now -”

“We’ll be right there,” Kali says.

She drops the walkie-talkie on the bed as Steve’s brain catches up with what’s happening. Kali moves, kicking him in the side as she tries to get off of the bed. Steve groans, losing his grip on the sheets, and falling to the floor. He kinda wants to fucking laugh. Never has he ever woken up with a woman in his bed quite like this.

He groans, crawling around on the carpet until he can stand up again. As soon as he does, his eyes land on Kali. She’s standing on the other side of the bed, pulling her pajama shirt off. He catches the glimpse of a plain white tank top and it’s really, really fucking obvious she doesn’t have a bra on. Steve yelps and turns around, face burning.

“Steve!” Kali sounds amused but frantic. “We don’t have time for your white boy suburban modesty, get dressed so we can go!”

“I -” Steve can’t get the sight of her fucking nipples, poking at her fucking white tank top, out of his head.

Something rough smacks into the back of his head. He almost drops, flinching away, before he realizes that she’s thrown a pair of his jeans right at him.

“Hey!” He twirls around again, pants in his hand.

It was the wrong move, he thinks a moment too late.

Because now she’s just standing there in a fucking purple bra and black panties, staring at him with her eyebrows raised and her lips pursed. One of her hands is cocked on her hips, and he’s trying really, really hard not to just. Just stand there and stare at her with his mouth gaping open as if he’s never seen a woman before. Because he fucking has, alright! But not ones who have lingerie that match their fucking hair color and are looking at him as if they can’t quite believe what an idiot he is.

But here they are, just fucking looking at each other. The absolutely absurdity of the situation washes over Steve, and for just a flickering moment, his old confidence flares to life as she looks at him, just fucking unimpressed. Steve tosses his jeans onto the bed and then before he can lose his fucking nerve, whips his pajama shirt off of his head. He thinks he hears Kali make a small, interested noise. But in lieu of glancing up to see if she likes what she sees - and fucking God, what the fuck is wrong with him, really – Steve hooks his thumbs into his pajama pants and pushes them down.

Then he’s just standing there, in his fucking navy blue boxers - he has to glance down quickly just to confirm it’s not the pair with the bleach stain right on the crotch - in front of Kali. He looks up again at her and raises his eyebrows right back. She’s smiling at him, something small and fond.

“Well, you showed me yours, so,” he says, because he’s a corny motherfucker.

She points at his jeans. “Just put those on so we can go, Casanova.”

He grins back at her and they finish getting dressed rapidly, mostly in silence. He’s pretty sure her black t-shirt is on backwards, but he gets momentarily distracted again when she goes right to his dresser. She pulls most of his drawers almost all the way out before he finds his sweaters. Once she does, she pulls out two pullovers. One she tosses to him over her shoulder, and the other she just slips on as if he had already given her permission.

He doesn’t say anything, but he does grin at her in the bathroom mirror. They find themselves crowded at the sink together, trying to fix their slept-on hair and brush their teeth at the same time. It’s a mad tangle of arms, toothpaste, and hairspray - Steve now has the taste of mint and aerosol in his mouth. And it’s fucking gross, but it’s kinda fucking nice, too. Bizarre as hell but nice.

If he thought shared fucking trauma brought people together, sleeping together - just fucking sleeping and drooling and probably farting on each other - must be what made them even closer.

Ten minutes later, they’re ready to leave the house. Kali automatically goes to the driver’s seat, and Steve doesn’t even complain. He just looks at her, nods, and turns the radio on. Her body seems more tense than it did in his room; the humor has mostly faded from her face and she has her almost-blank look on again. Her fingers grip the steering wheel tightly as she moves the car into drive and starts out of the driveway.

“You don’t suppose we have time to stop for donuts or something on the way?” he asks, feeling his stomach rumble.

He doesn't think she’s actually going to answer, at least not affirmatively, anyway. But then the corner of her mouth ticks up, just slightly.

“Only if there’s a drive-through on the way,” she says.

 

+++

 

Joyce’s minivan, Hopper’s car, Kali’s van, and a nondescript black town car are all in the driveway when they pull up to Hopper’s cabin. Both Steve and Kali stay where they sit after Kali parks, staring up at the cabin. Kali’s hand grips the gearshift tightly, her knuckles paling as she does. Steve glances at the side of her face, a box of two dozen - really twenty one and a half, they got hungry, alright? - donuts in his lap.

He slowly slides one of his hands from underneath the box to gently place it on top of hers. He squeezes slightly, enjoying the feeling of her finger under his. She doesn’t turn her face to look at him, but he sees something soften in her gaze. There’s something hesitant and scared that he hasn’t seen, out of all the emotions they’ve gone through in these short days together. It’s like she’s frightened of being rejected, of finally getting what she wants but realizes now it’s not gonna be enough to fix anything.

“Jane might not….” Kali stops and sighs. “She left and we…”

“Kali?”

She shakes her head and turns to look at him. Before he can say anything else, she leans in, pressing a kiss on the corner of his mouth. It’s soft but electric; he finds himself turning his head towards her fully, trying to chase her mouth with his.

But she’s already pulling away. Her hand slips from underneath his and she undoes her seatbelt. She’s opened the door and has climbed out of the car before he can fucking do anything else. He’s not sure what the fuck that was - the not actually a kiss, his reaction, his longing - and just swallows. He watches her sling her bag onto her back and then grab the gallon or orange juice and the box of coffee they had picked up from the backseat. She slams the door shut and then circles around the car, headed up the porch stairs.

It’s only after she half turns, raising her eyebrows at him that he nods gets out of the car. Kali’s face remains cool and passive as they stand in front of the cabin door. Steve moves his arm to knock with his elbow.

The door flies open, and all Steve sees is a blur of curly hair before Kali stumbles back, going down the stairs and onto the grass. Steve yelps, about to drop the donuts and lunge after her, when he hears her breathless, exhilarated laugh. He pauses and watches the scene unfold in front of him. In his peripheral, Mike, Joyce, and Nancy have crowded in the doorway.

Kali and Jane are both kneeling together, wrapped in the most emotional hug Steve has ever witnessed in his life. Jane’s head is tucked down in Kali’s neck, arms rigid around her. Kali is still fucking holding the coffee and the OJ, the two containers bumping into one another on Jane’s back. Kali’s head is turned towards Jane’s ear, her mouth moving rapidly as she speaks, too low for Steve to hear.

Steve clears his throat, feeling awkward as he stares at this clearly fucking emotional and intimate moment. He looks away, back towards the doorframe. The other little shits have crowded around, peeking through small spaces to look at what’s happening. Joyce has a soft, misty look in her eyes.

“I thought they weren’t getting here til Saturday,” Steve says.

Mike is staring at Jane with wide, proud eyes. “El used her powers.”

“Okay,” Steve says, “And what the hell does that mean?”

“El can see things, can track people,” Lucas says. “Inside her mind.”

“Great, that’s - fucking great,” Steve mutters.

“Yeah, and she saw you and Kali totally beat the crap outta Hopper, and came right here.”

Steve’s heart jolts when he hears that, cause it’s Dustin’s voice, just a little strained. Dustin pushes past Nancy to stand on the porch next to Steve. Steve almost drops the donuts in relief to see the kid walking around, looking pretty much the same as he did the night before. Now, though, he has a bandana tied around his mouth, heavy gardening gloves over both hands - probably as some kinda precaution, Steve thinks - and his face is slightly paler. Otherwise he just looks like he has a bad cold.

“Kid,” Steve tries to keep his tone calm. “How are you feeling?”

Dustin smiles at him, and it looks genuine. “Fine, you know. Just waiting for the moment until I become a raging zombie.”

“Dustin -”

“It’s fine, Steve, it’s fine,” Dustin says. “I’ll be okay.”

Will is there a moment later, slinging his arm around Dustin’s shoulder. “Yeah, you will.”

Dustin lifts his hands towards the donut box. “Steve, did you bring breakfast?”

Steve takes a half step away, pulling the box out of his grasp. “Not for you, you little shit. You should be drinking chicken soup, or something.”

“You know I don’t actually have the flu, right?” Dustin gives him a dirty look. “I’m one hundred percent positive some hot tea isn’t gonna kill the Mind Flayer germs.”

“Yeah, well, it can’t hurt -”

Max trips up to them, also trying to get at the box. “You get anything good, or just jelly donuts?”

“What’s wrong with jelly?” Steve asks.

“Nothing, if you like eating like a slob -”

“Okay, okay,” Joyce steps back from the doorframe, gesturing at everyone. “Should we get inside? Dr. Owens is waiting.”

“Here, Steve, let me take this offa your broken hands,” Lucas says, grabbing the box and sprinting into the house.

“Hey! You -” Steve shakes his head, watching as the kids all go back inside, following Joyce.

Nancy looks at them, a soft smile on her face before turning back to Steve. He watches as her eyes slide over to Kali and Jane, who are still locked in their embrace. Kali’s pulled her head away slightly and she stares at Jane directly, but other than that, their grips are still tight. Nancy tilts her head towards the house, but Steve hesitates. For some reason, he really doesn’t want to leave Kali out here. He doesn’t fucking know why; she can handle herself, even around an all-powerful thirteen year old.

It only takes a moment, but then it dawns on him. It’s because he wants her to know that he’s there for her. Here, for her, whatever.

Shit.

All this shared trauma and bed snuggles are really getting to him.

He mentally shakes himself and follows Nancy into the house.

“How’re you feeling?” Nancy asks. “After your… battle last night.”

He huffs. “Fine. You? How were the kids?”

Nancy shrugs. “Shaken up, but you know them. They… compiled a bunch of information on the Mind Flayer.”

“And?”

“It’s not good,” she says slowly, “But.”

“But?”

“It could be worse.”

They pause in the doorway of the kitchen, where the kids have all descended on the donuts already. An older man dressed in too-stiff clothing, like he just bought them from the store, sits at the kitchen table next to Joyce. She’s already drinking a mug of coffee. Jonathan is searching through the cabinets, passing the little shitheads drinking glasses.

“Kali’s wearing your sweater,” Nancy says, looking like she’s trying to bite back a smile. “Again.”

“Yeah, well,” Steve says, trying not to smile back at her.

Nancy tilts her head. “Jonathan said it sounded like you two were… sleeping… very close to each other.”

“She snores.”

Nancy’s face blossoms into a grin. “You know...”

“What?”

“It’s okay, to like her,” Nancy nudges his shoulder just slightly. “You know.”

Steve looks down at her, the coy look on her face as she stares back up at him. His heart is beating way too fast, but he’s not even sure what to say to her. Because fuck. Fuck. Nancy’s always been the smart one, always been the quick one. Not only between him and her, but just in general. So of course, with all the fucking mania going on, she would notice Kali fucking wearing his sweater twice. She would notice, probably, the looks that Steve’s been giving Kali. And maybe she’s noticed some that Kali’s given him right back.

Maybe.

Fuck.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” he says slowly.

“Why not?”

He lifts his eyebrows at her. “Why not? Nance, come on.”

She says, voice going even softer, “I thought the same thing, about…”

This time, it doesn’t hurt. “You can say it. About Jonathan.”

“Yeah, about Jon,” she says. “And it always felt like the worse time but… I don’t know, Steve. With how our lives have been going, we’ll be lucky to not be dead by Valentine’s Day.”

He almost snorts. “Romantic, Nance.”

She rolls her eyes. “Steve.”

“What?” he sighs for a moment. “Maybe you were right, anyway. That it’s all bullshit.”

“I -”

“That, with me, it’s just bullshit.”

Nancy pushes away from the doorframe. “You and me, together? That was the bullshit, Steve. But with the right person?”

She walks away from him to sit down at the table next to Joyce, leaning in to grab a chocolate glazed donut from the box. He’s about to move into the kitchen to join them when Jane pushes past him, the orange juice and the coffee in her hands.

As soon as Mike sees her, his entire face lights up. He waits exactly half a second for her to put the containers down before he’s next to her again, grabbing onto her hand and holding it. Steve watches as Nancy and Jonathan exchange bemused looks. Steve smiles a little to himself, too.

Kali appears at his elbow. “Hi.”

He looks down at her, trying to catch her eyes. But she just stares at the scene before her. Half of the kids are trying to sneak coffee as Joyce bats their hands away; the other half are throwing donut chunks at each other instead of eating like civilized human beings. Steve hesitates for a moment, before shifting to press his side into Kali’s gently. She presses right back; something warm dissolves in his stomach.

“You okay?” he asks.

She nods, slowly. “It was actually easier than I thought.”

“Yeah?”

“She can see things, people. Know where they are. It’s how she first found me,” Kali’s voice dips a little, becomes fonder. “I guess she’s been keeping tabs on Mike and Hopper. And me, too. I didn’t have to fill in many blanks.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah,” Kali blows out a breath. “I guess… I wasn’t sure she’d believe me.”

They watch as Max goes to reach for a strawberry frosted donut at the same time Jane does. Max stops short, arm hovering in the air. Jane stares at her for a moment, face hard; Max’s skin turns red. She drops her hand away, mumbling something about not wanting it. Beside him, Kali frowns.

“That’s -” Kali starts to say.

But then Jane picks up the donut, and rounds the table to stand next to Max. She holds it out tentatively, an uncertain smile on her face. Max stands completely still, looking from Jane’s face to the donut and back again. Near the sink, all of the boys have gone quiet, watching the exchange as well.

“Split it?” Jane asks.

A smile blooms onto Max’s face. “Yeah, yeah, I’d like that.”

Jane grins back at her before ripping the donut in two. She doesn’t do it quiet evenly, but she hands over the bigger piece to Max anyway. It stays quiet for a moment, and then everyone goes back to their conversations. Will and Lucas seem to be in some kind of OJ chugging contest; Dr. Owens, Nancy and Jonathan are nodding intently at something Joyce is saying.

“Thanks, El,” Max says with a mouth full of donut. “Uhm. Jane?”

“Call me El,” Jane says.

“Okay,” Max says. “El.”

Jane nods, looking at Max seriously. “Friends call me El.”

“Yeah,” Max says. “Yeah, cool.”

 

+++

 

After everyone settles in the kitchen, the planning begins. It’s clear from the jump that the little assholes didn’t come to play games.

Well.

Sort of.

“So, here’s what we have on the Mind Flayer,” Dustin says.

He tosses a notebook, full of drawings and scribbles onto the table. It almost lands on the remaining donuts. Steve, Kali, Nancy and Jonathan all lean forward to look at the pages. Joyce shakes her head and drinks more coffee, as if she’s seen this all before. Dr. Owens just stares at them, somewhat confused and morbidly. Steve wants to kinda yell at him, cause wasn’t he fucking there for the demo-dogs? Wasn’t he one of the fuckfaces who kept the gate open?

“Where did you get all this?” Nancy asks.

Mike says, “Some of it come from the dungeon manual -”

“Oh boy,” Steve says.

“ - And some of it we found in the library.”

“Huh?”

“That one place where you can check out books for free, Steve,” Dustin says.

“Yeah, yeah smartass, I know what a library is -”

“Ever since… last time… we’ve done a lot more research,” Lucas pipes in. “And it turns out there’s a lot of information on this stuff.”

“Most of it was in old science fiction magazines,” Max adds.

“Great, so our knowledge of these otherworldly evil creature is all from Flash Gordon comics,” Steve mutters.

“But some of it was from old newspaper clippings,” Will says. “You know. Talking about mysterious things going on...”

“A lot of it was photos of aliens,” Lucas shakes his head.

“Alleged aliens,” Dustin says.

Max says, “But some of it was talking about like, you know, nuclear radiation and stuff. How it was creating these weird vine things in random towns.”

“So we compiled it all here last night,” Mike finishes.

Nancy looks impressed, leaning closer to the notebook. “This is great stuff, guys.”

Jonathan stabs his finger on one of the pages. “Holy shit.”

Steve scoots closer to read the sloppy words in on the page, next to a smaller crayon drawing of a few Mind Flayers:

  _MIND FLAYERS IN THE UPSIDE DOWN_

_Mind Flayers live in the Upside Down. There are approximately 200 - 2,000 of them alive at any given time, plus at least two slaves for each resident. Slaves are controlled by Mind Flayer toxins and obey their masters without question (most slaves come from other species that the Mind Flayers think of as inferior). Slaves obey their masters without question. PROBABLY: the “toxin” was that weird flower thing that sprayed Hopper and Dustin. POSSIBLY: the Mind Flayers turn beings into zombie slaves to spread the toxin to other beings???_

_The center of the Upside Down is the Elder Brain. This is some kind of nasty fluid that contains the brains of the city’s dead mind flayers. POSSIBLY: the Elder Brain in the Upside Down is connected to the hub in Hawkins???_

_Mind Flayers do not work well with others!! They are constantly vying for power and trying to overthrow the other. But sometimes they do work together. A small group of them (an Inquisition) may form to seize power. This is usually done when trying to take over another world of inferior beings. Inquisitions work together just like a party of adventurers. POSSIBLY: Will’s Mind Flayer was the head of the Inquisition???_

_KNOWN WEAKNESSES: fire_

_KNOWN STRENGTHS: hive mind, demogorgons at their control, slave toxin, creepy vines_

“Amazing,” Kali shakes her head.

“But what you’re telling me is that - that Mind Flayer thing that had Will, you think there’s two thousand of them? In the Upside Down?” Steve stares at the kids.

“Uh, yeah.”

“So this is -”

“A much bigger problem than we thought,” Kali shakes her head. “It’s not going to be enough to just close the Chicago... gate.”

Will straightens his shoulders. “We have to go into the Upside Down and kill the Elder Brain.”

“Or else this will just keep happening,” Mike says. “People like Brenner -”

“Papa,” Jane glowers darkly.

“ -Will keep finding ways to open gates,” Mike continues. “And eventually our world will be taken over.”

“We’ll all be zombie slaves,” Dustin says, despondently.

Jonathan hesitates. “Dustin, should you be… listening to this? What if they’re using you as a spy -”

Will shakes his head. “It’s not like how it was with me.”

Dustin says, “we’re pretty sure the Mind Flayer just wants to use me and Hopper as like, grunts. It probably wants us to infect other humans to make us all easier to control.”

“Just like zombies bite or scratch people to infect them,” Max says.

Steve nods. “So, that’s why the gloves.”

“Can’t scratch anyone like this,” Dustin lifts his hands slightly.

Will nods. “The Mind Flayer sprayed them when it already had me as a link between our world and the Upside Down. It probably thought with me as a spy and them as slaves, conquering us would be easy.”

“Right,” Nancy says faintly.

“So we have to go to Chicago,” Mike says resolutely. “We have to get into the new Lab and go into the Upside Down and kill the Mind Flayers once and for all.”

“And stop Papa,” Jane says.

Steve watches as she looks up at Kali, her eyes completely flat. Kali stares back at her, face hard.

“We also have to figure out what to do with Hopper,” Jonathan says quietly, glancing at his mother.

Joyce looks up, mouth set firmly. “I think Dr. Owens should take him.”

Dr. Owens says, “Excuse me?”

Joyce shakes her head. “We can’t keep him in the cellar, he’s still - he’s still Jim. But, from what you’ve said, Steve, Kali, he’s incredibly dangerous right now. He needs to be put in a stable environment where maybe - maybe the scientists can find a cure, or help him. Something.”

Jane frowns. “Really hot?”

Nancy bites her lip. “That might work, but if the… mind control… is really that much different than Will’s, there’s no telling how to get that stuff out of Hopper.”

Dr. Owens shakes his head no. “This is - I’m sorry, but this is unacceptable.”

“Huh?” Max asks, raising her eyebrows.

Dr. Owens sweeps his hand across the table. “You’re all just children! And you want to go on a joyride to Chicago to close a highly volatile and dangerous portal to another world?”

“Hey -”

“There is a very sick man locked in a cellar, and the same thing that happened to him could happen to this one at any moment,” he jerks his head at Dustin. “And you all have been in constant exposure to both of them. All of you need to come back with me -”

Besides Steve, Kali tenses.

“ - To have tests run and to have you all under observation,” Dr. Owens says. “Besides, Jane is really not fit to be in society right now. I know it’s an emergency but she shouldn’t even be here -”

“Oh, so you know what’s best for her, then?” Kali half stands up, fists clenching on the tabletop. “You, some Hawkins lackey who -”

“Dr. Owens is good,” Jane interrupts her, shaking her head. “He helps -”

“By keeping you locked away in some lab somewhere, isolated from your friends?” Kali snaps. “Doing experiments on you, training you -”

“Not like that,” Jane says.

“Young lady, I know all about the horrors that have happened here, and I know what Jane has done to stop it,” Dr. Owens says. “But I also know that she is young and she needs better control of her powers. And that sending a bunch of middle schoolers into the - the Upside Down is sending them on a suicide mission -”

“They won’t be alone,” Nancy cuts him off. “And quite frankly, I don’t see how you have any say in any of this anyway.”

“Jim Hopper may be her father legally, but Jane is under my protection as he is currently incapacitated,” Dr. Owens says. “And I say no. None of you have to come with me, but Jane and Jim certainly are.”

Joyce gets up from the table suddenly, scraping her chair back. The sound of wood on linoleum is grating, and Steve winces. She all but runs into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Jonathan curses and gets up as well, following his mother. The kids are all tense over in their chairs, glaring at Dr. Owens and speaking over one another about how it isn’t fair, how they have to do what’s right. Kali gets up from her seat completely, palms now flattened against the table. The arms in her muscles are tense, like she’s trying not to lift her hands up and use her powers on Dr. Owens.

“Well -”

“Ms. Wheeler, I’m not the enemy here,” Dr. Owens says softly.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Nancy says, head up and eyes defiant.

“Ms. Wheeler -”

Will stands up, too. “You were there, just a month ago. You know what the demo-dogs can do. You know what the gate was like, and the vines, and the - the Mind Flayer -”

“There are other people who I will call, who can take care of this kind of thing,” Dr. Owens starts to say.

The bathroom door unlocks, and there’s the slam of the door hitting a wall. Steve looks up to see Joyce walking out calmly, Jonathan right behind her. Steve frowns, noticing a glint of something metal in Jonathan’s hands. Joyce slowly rounds the table, her hands in her sweater pockets. She moves like she’s going towards the sink, right in front of where Dr. Owens is sitting.

“Dr. Owens may have a point,” Joyce says softly.

Steve barely pays attention to what she’s saying because of how fucking weird Jonathan is walking. He keeps his front to the table at all times, like he’s strategically trying to hide something behind his back. Steve gives him a confused look, but Jonathan only looks at Dr. Owens.

“And this is why we need adults in the room,” Dr. Owens says, turning his head slightly towards Joyce. “Mrs. Byers, thank you.”

Joyce gives him a wane smile. “Don’t thank me yet.”

“What -”

Joyce lunges forward, a syringe in her hand. She jabs it directly into Dr. Owens’s neck, into the vein that’s slightly sticking out. She presses down on plunger, injecting Dr. Owen’s fully. He gasps up at her, trying to form words, before slumping over in his chair. He almost falls to the floor but Jonathan dances forward, catching him right in time. Steve’s mouth drops open as a crowbar slips out of Jonathan’s grasp and clangs to the floor.

Will squeaks slightly. “Jonathan!”

“I wasn’t going to hurt him,” Jonathan says, hauling Dr. Owens upright in his chair, leaning his neck back gently. “The crowbar was just, you know, in case he saw the syringe coming.”

“Badass,” Dustin nods.

Joyce wipes at her brow with the back of her hand. “Well. That should give us a few hours, at least.”

“A few hours, yeah,” Mike nods. “A few hours.”

Kali lifts her head up. “So what’s the plan now?”

Mike says, “We have to stop the Mind Flayer as soon as possible.”

“We should also get Hopper out of the cellar,” Nancy says, glancing at Joyce. “And he probably should be under some kind of watch at the lab.”

Joyce takes a deep breath, nodding. “You all need to get to Chicago. I’ll stay here with Dr. Owens and Hopper.”

“Mom -” Jonathan starts.

Joyce shakes her head. “I never thought those words would cross my mouth.”

Kali nods. “We should leave immediately. We can take my van.”

Dustin swallows. “All of us?”

Jane nods at him. “All of us.”

It’s fucking nuts.

The idea that four teenagers and six pre-teens are gonna cross state lines to face down an otherworldly monster - it’s just fucking nuts. Steve knows this, and as he looks around the table, he knows everyone knows this. But it’s also - almost - nothing they haven’t done before. No one looks like they’re backing down, either; and not for the first time, a swell of pride and fear runs across Steve’s bones as he stares at the kids. He catches Kali’s eyes and she nods at him, a complicated look in her eyes. He nods back at her, trying to let her know he’s with her.

Steve says, “Okay, but Hopper’s… I don’t think you and Dr. Owens are gonna be able to get him into a car and to the lab alone.”

Joyce squares her shoulders. “Dr. Owens will just have to call in for some backup when he comes to.”

“Hopper’s gonna hate having so many people crawling over his property,” Jonathan shakes his head.

 

+++

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading bbies! 
> 
> 1) Did they have Grading Days in the 1980s? Every other month I had a day off in high school because the teachers just had to go into school to grade everything they procrastinated on.
> 
> 2) The description of the Mind Flayer is part made up, part from a recent version of a D&D monster manual, s/o to my brother for sending me a PDF file of it. 
> 
> 3) UPDATING NOTICE: I've been publishing chapters about once a week (about as fast as I can write, tbh!) but chapter five won't be coming out for another TWO weeks. I'm working on another project that has a deadline coming up, so I need to focus on that atm. But don't worry! Just think of this as a mid-season break.
> 
> So leave me many comments (if you feel so inclined) so I know it's real when I get back to writing ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi loves!
> 
> Full offense but y'all literally had me crying with all of your amazing comments! Thank you so much for sticking with me and giving me so much positive feedback! They really boost my mood and keep me writing (especially when I'm doubting this whole endeavor asdjkl). 
> 
> I know I promised this would be up in two weeks (instead of three), and I'm sorry about the delay. For those of you who follow me on Tumblr, you know I've been pretty busy and have been having a really rough time lately. BUT it looks like I'm back on schedule. And I'm so excited to share this new chapter of Kali x Steve fluffy supernatural goodness!

+++

 

Steve ends up in the front seat again, with Kali behind the wheel. The trip to Chicago isn’t even that long - four, five hours at most - but all the little shits, Jonathan and Nance are already asleep in the bed of the van. Steve watches at Kali glances up, looking at all of them through the rearview mirror. A smile eases onto her face, and Steve wonders if she’s noticed the death grip Mike has on Jane, both of their heads pillowed by Nancy’s thigh. Every so often, Dustin breaks into a coughing fit, but mostly sleeps through it.

Steve tries to shove down the knot growing in his throat.

A cassette plays instead of the radio, though it’s turned down low. It’s some punk band that Steve’s never heard of, though Jonathan had been singing along to some of the songs before he knocked out as well. The highways are extremely quiet and it starts snowing about an hour into their trip. Even from his seat, Steve can feel the cold air breeze into the van, not exactly deterred by the piece of cardboard duct taped to the back window, from where Steve bashed the glass in.

Kali only has one hand on the wheel, the other gripping a cup of hot coffee in her lap. Steve’s only a little surprised at this point that she keeps to the speed limit. The further they drive, the more rigid the line of her back becomes. And Steve gets it, he really fucking does. This isn’t some summer road trip where they’ll get drunk along the way and visit hokey tourist traps. Not to sound overly fucking dramatic, but they’re basically on a mission to save the world. And the only people who can really stop Brenner, who can end these Mind Flayer fucks and the link to the Upside Down, well, most of them are passed the fuck out and drooling all over each other.

He wants to tell Kali it’s all gonna be okay, but he doesn’t fucking know that. And he’s sure that if he tried to bluff his way through making her feel better - more relaxed, more confident, whatever the hell - she’d just smirk or roll her eyes or say something snarky.

Maybe.

She keeps surprising him with her softness, after all.

“Do you - ” he pauses, glancing over at her profile. “At the next gas station stop, you want me to take over driving?”

She does smirk, but her voice is gentle. “No, it’s fine. You really need to give your hands a rest.”

“They’re fine,” he says automatically.

She snorts at him. “Sure.”

They ride in silence for a few more minutes; Kali takes a sip of her coffee.

“Anthony would’ve been able to help with that,” Kali says finally. “The kid who -“

Steve remembers. “The one you… the little boy Brenner tortured.”

Kali nods. “One of many, but.”

“But?”

“He was still very young, so he was still very kind,” her mouth twists. “And his powers were beautiful. He could heal people - nothing fatal, but small cuts, abrasions. It was like he knit the skin back together with his mind.”

Steve’s frozen in his seat, not sure if that’s his clue to contribute to the conversation, to ask questions. He doesn’t think Kali is just talking to chat or to hear her own voice, though. It’s another moment, small but significant, where she’s sharing with him. He’s terrified of how scared he is off fucking this up. This… whatever’s between them that has her confiding in him. Fucking trusting him. And he realizes, with a start, how important she’s become to his life - to him - in just a few short days.

Fucking hell.

“That’s fucking crazy,” he says.

She says, “He was the youngest, I think. Number fourteen.”

Her hand clenches around the coffee cup; he thinks about it the small number tattooed there, hidden under her denim jacket and his sweater. He thinks about trying to act casual, worried that anything too deep he can ask will make her clam up.

But in typical Steve fashion, he goes for fucking broke.

“Did Jane know Anthony too?” He asks. “Did…. all of you were experimented on together?”

He wonders too late if he should’ve said “raised together,” but what the hell, it’s out there now.  

Kali’s mouth twists. “No. They liked to keep us separated, for the most part. I only met Anthony after Jane, and that was just a few short weeks.”

She doesn’t say _before they killed him_ , and she doesn’t fucking need to. He wants to open his mouth and say something, maybe apologize. Maybe say he doesn’t know how she feels but he’s empathetic - sympathetic? He can never quite remember which one is which - to everything. But it feels too corny, and anyway, why bother saying shit that she already knows, right?

Before he can make up his mind, she changes the subject.

“So, you’re a senior?” she asks. “How’s college applications going?”

For a moment he’s wondered if he’s stumbled into the _Twilight Zone_ and Kali’s about to take off her skin like a suit or something, to reveal his great Aunt Elizabeth underneath it. A quick image of Kali digging through an old, leather purse to give him half-moldy peppermints flies through his mind, and he has to repress a quick giggle. She quirks her eyebrows at him like he’s being a fucking weirdo, which of course he is. But it’s just - it's such a fucking normal question that it feels like an out-of-place thing to say.

Kinda like someone saying the word ‘demogorgon’ was to him just a year ago.

Jesus fucking Christ.

“Uh, yeah,” he slides his hand over the back of his hair. “It’s fine. I’m probably gonna go to State, play basketball, major in business or econ and then come back to Hawkins and work for my dad.”

It’s too much all at once, this bleak image of his life sprawled out in front of him. When he was much younger, he would’ve been thrilled by the prospect of it. When he was a sophomore, he would’ve been annoyed by it, having his whole life set out in front of him. Now, he’s only slightly depressed by it and mostly just resigned that it might not even happen cause he could die by a vicious monster bite pretty much any time now.

“But not marry your high school sweetheart,” Kali says with a straight face.

He sees her eyes flicker towards Nancy in the rearview mirror. He knows she’s fucking with him. It makes him burn with something that’s not quite annoyance and not quite fondness, either. Something in the middle.

“Did you think about college?” he asks. “You know, going. When you were with your prof - with Madge?”

Her eyebrows tick, like she’s surprised he remembered her name. “Madge wanted me to get my GED and apply to a community college but I thought it was a waste of time.”

“Why?” he’s genuinely curious.

“I don’t have a birth certificate, I don’t have a social, I don’t have any identification at all,” she says bluntly. “I could’ve made administrations see that I did, but what would the point be?”

“An education so you could get a decent job?” he says.

She smirks. “Madge used to say it was to expand my horizons. I think you’re just as much full of shit now as she was then.”

He shakes his head, a small movement, almost smiling. “Maybe.”

“But it ended up not mattering, anyway. When Brenner’s goons came...” Her voice dips. “Madge’s PhD couldn’t save her. And I got out.”

Her tone says it’s the end of the story, and probably the end of the conversation. She takes another sip of her coffee, eyes not even glancing back towards Steve. He kinda wants to pick at her, like a scab or some shit, for his own curiosity. But he knows that would be a fucked up thing to do, just as he knows that she won’t do that to him, if he shut the conversation down. So instead he just clears his throat slightly, and turns the radio up a bit.

She glances towards him then, gratitude in her eyes.

He smiles back and thinks he’s really fucking gone on her.

 

+++

 

Steve bangs on the top of the van with his fist as Kali pulls into a gas station, just a few miles away from Chicago. He can see the skyscrapers in the distance, even through the veil of snow that’s falling.

“Hey shitheads, wake up,” he yells over his shoulder. “Gas station break.”

Kali smirks at him before turning off the car and sliding out of her seat. All of the kids, Nancy and Jonathan slowly get up groggily; Lucas gives him a death glare. Nancy yawns loudly and Mike bats at her leg, telling her she need a breath mint. Steve snorts, getting out of his seat and jumping to the ground. A small, spiteful zing of pleasure goes through him as he slams his door shut, grinning at the chorus of complaints coming from the bed of the van. He stretches, popping the muscles in his back before sauntering towards the restrooms.

When he gets back from taking a piss, washing his hands, and checking on his hair - in the cracked mirror that has _call Genie for a good time xo_ written on it in red lipstick - everyone is stretching or milling around outside of the van. Jonathan passes out water bottles to all the little shits while Kali brushes off snow from the top of the van and the front window. Nancy’s standing at the gas pump, carefully filling the tank back up.

“Hey numbnuts, why’d you slam your door like that?” Dustin demands, his voice hoarse.

“Yeah, not cool, Steve,” Lucas glares at him.

“Asshole,” Max mutters without much heat behind her words.

Will starts laughing hysterically, and Jonathan smirks. Before Steve can get one insulting word in, though, Will’s laughter changes into something that sounds downright painful.

He starts gagging, fingers tightening until his knuckles turn white on his water bottle. As he doubles over, Jonathan drops everything in his hands and tries to lunge for his little brother. Steve gets there first, though; his arms go around Will’s body just as the boy begins to fall, spasms going through him. He almost trips, bending his knees so he can cradle Will and prevent him from falling into the snowy asphalt.

“What the fuck!” Steve hisses, trying to both hold on tight.

Jonathan practically dives, kneeling beside Steve and running careful, worried hands over Will’s hair. The kids don’t crowd around Steve like he had expected, but keep a slight distance. Mike grips Jane’s hand tightly and Max hides half of her face behind her hair. It takes Steve a moment to realize that they’re not immediately crawling all over him and Will because they’ve seen this before, and they know what to do. They’re giving them both space until the attack is over.

“Will!” Nancy runs over, a dark oil spot on her jeans.

Kali appears a moment later; her hands already out and she has a hard look on her face, like she’s expecting some robbers. Or more realistically, Steve thinks, a bunch of cops. Jane glances up at her and shakes her head quickly. Kali drops her hands immediately, but moves to stand with Nancy, watching as Will’s body stops seizing.

“Shit, shit,” Steve swears.

Will stays still in his arms for a few more moments, before blinking his eyes open. His gaze is hazy, like he’s not quite himself yet, and he sucks down gulps of air, like he’s been suffocating. Steve shifts around so that he’s bending, holding Will steadily by his neck and back, so the kid can stand upright. Jonathan slowly brings a bottle of water to his lips; Will drinks it slowly, taking small sips. Everyone else watches silently, until Will pushes the bottle away gently, taking one last big gulp of air. Jonathan reaches out and pets Will’s hair gently, his hand shaking over the strands.

“You scared me, Will, oh God,” Jonathan says,

“You okay, kid?” Steve asks.

"That's the second time in just a few -" Jonathan starts.

"Actually, it's the fourth," Mike pipes in.

The blood drains from Jonathan's face. "The fou - Will, buddy? Are you okay?"

But Will doesn’t answer him; he just turns his head and nods at Mike. Mike immediately drops Jane’s hand and reaches for his back pocket. Steve furrows his brow, staring as Mike brings out a small notebook and a pen, flipping it open and then nodding back at Will. Steve looks at Jonathan, and then Nancy, both of whom look as surprised as he feels. Kali stares at Will intently, her head tilted slightly.

Will takes the pen and notebook from Mike, and then goes to sit down in the van. The kids all follow him silently and watch as he starts drawing.

What the fuck?

“It was just like the last few times,” Will says. “Everything was still hazy, like I was kinda there and kinda not. But I saw it again - the Mind Flayer, and its Inquisition.”

Steve damn near has a heart attack where he stands.

“What the fuck?” his voice goes high.

Jonathan is next to Will in a flash. “Will? Are you okay? Oh God -”

Will bats his hands away. “Stop, Jonathan, I’m trying to draw.”

“Will - ” Nancy starts to say.

Mike looks up at them, annoyance crossing his face. “Just let him concentrate?”

“What the hell is happening?” Steve demands.

Lucas rolls his eyes like he can’t be bothered. “Will just had another vision.”

Jonathan’s voice goes extremely high. “Another what?”

Mike sighs. “This past week Will’s been having visions of the Upside Down. We think it’s his True Sight -”

Jonathan lets out a string of curses, some of which even Steve hasn’t even heard before. “What the fuck!”

“That’s why he’s been having seizures or whatever,” Max says. “That’s when he has visions.”

“It’s not like before, though, not like when I was being controlled by the Mind Flayer,” Will says, glancing up for a moment. “It’s like they don’t even know that I’m there, like I’m a ghost or something.”

“We think that being the Mind Flayer’s spy had some residual effects on Will, and now he can use his True Sight to like, see into the Upside Down,” Lucas adds.

“And this has happened more than once?” Jonathan looks incredibly angry. “What didn’t you tell -”

“Mom knows,” Will says casually.

Steve rubs his eyebrows. “So you mean to tell me that you’ve been having visions of the Upside Down and didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell us?”

“I didn’t have time,” Will shrugs almost carelessly.

“Besides, why does it matter? You know now,” Lucas adds.

Jonathan looks like he’s two seconds away from strangling his own brother. Before Steve can pull him away though, Nancy steps between them. She touches Jonathan’s shoulder, looking up at him with a stern look on her face. Steve doesn’t know what’s going on between them, exactly; but the longer they stand there, staring at each other, the softer the lines in Jonathan’s face become. His body goes from completely rigid to something more pliant under her hand.

Steve’s surprised by how much this doesn’t bother him.

Nancy steps away slightly, but just to move next to Jonathan and take his hand.  

Jonathan takes a deep breath. “Will, you should have told me. You should have told us.”

Will looks up, the pen stilling on his paper. Something small and guilty flashes across his face, like he’s just now realized how serious this whole thing is. Steve finds himself looking at Kali, who’s still just looking at Will. She has a soft, unreadable look on her face. Steve glances away to eyeball the rest of the kids. They seem to be picking up on the panicked energy around Jonathan; almost as one unit, they softly mumble excuses and look half apologetic. Dustin clears his throat loudly, like he wants to hack something up to spit but thinks it might be rude in this moment. 

“We have to tell each other everything, okay?” Jonathan says. “All of us, especially big stuff like this.”

Will says, “I’m sorry. It didn’t seem like a really big deal, comparatively.”

Steve wants to close his eyes at the stupidity of it, but just reminds himself, for the millionth time, that these are just a bunch of kids. Kids that maybe don't understand that this is a big fucking deal, probably because they know a girl who can use telekinesis. Kids that are brave and stupid as shit while somehow being smart enough to organize dossiers and do research and coin shit like 'True Sight.' Kids that are handling alla this a lot better than he ever will. 

“This is only my fourth one, I promise,” Will says. “And the first three - they were more like dreams. I can’t interact with anything and I couldn’t really move around. All I saw was bits and pieces of the Upside Down.”

“Okay,” Jonathan says slowly.

“This time was different because I could move around,” Will beams.

Lucas and Mike high-five.

“But we did research on lucid dreaming,” Dustin explains. “It must’ve worked!”

“Lucid - oh my God,” Nancy shakes her head.

“It did!” Will says. “This time, I could control stuff more - I walked around a few feet. Here”

He shoves his notebook at Jonathan, who gently takes it from him. Everyone - including Steve, he wants to see too, okay? - crowd around the notebook. It’s a drawing of a couple of Mind Flayers, standing amongst what looks like a pit of mush. It’s pretty detailed though, for just a pen and ink drawing. Kali presses into Steve as she leans in slightly to get a closer look.

“But you didn’t walk around at all here,” Nancy says.

Will shakes his head. “I know. It’s like I said - it’s completely different from before. I’m in control.”

Jonathan’s face is still ashen. “Will. Are you sure?”

Will’s eyes are clear and his tone focused. “One hundred percent, Jonathan.”

Jane nods resolutely. “He has True Sight.”

Kali hums. “This is amazing. You could spy on the Mind Flayers.”

Nancy glances at Kali with a surprised look on her face, before speaking, slightly breathlessly. “Oh my God. You could!”

Jonathan starts to speak. “Now, wait -”

“Will, you’re sure they couldn’t see you, or sense you, or anything?” Nancy cuts him off.

Will nods. "I was standing right in front of them, and they did nothing."

Nancy’s eyes widen. “Then that’s how we can defeat them. You can let us know what they’re doing, what their next move is -”

“It only happens when he has a seizure though,” Max cuts in. “He can’t control it.”

“Yet,” Mike says resolutely.

Jonathan’s already shaking his head though, concern clear on his face. “No, I don’t - Will. We already have so much information, I don’t think -”

“I want to do this, Jonathan,” Will says, eyes flaring. “I want - I’m in control now, not the Mind Flayer. It’s my choice.”

Everyone goes quiet. Jonathan closes his eyes for a moment, his breath hitching just slightly. Steve wishes he could do something, but honestly, what the fuck would he do, especially for Jonathan, of all people? He watches as Nancy leans into him slightly, probably squeezing his hand, trying to offer the comfort that she can.

Oddly enough - or maybe not, anymore - it’s Kali that speaks up.

“If Will wants to use his True Sight, you shouldn’t deny him his choice,” she says. “None of us should.”

Jonathan’s eyes open slightly. He stares at Will, the notebook still in his hand.

“Okay,” he says softly. “Okay.”

“You can trust it this time,” Will insists. “You can trust me.”

Jonathan drops slightly, his arms going around Will. The younger boy wraps his arms around his brother, his hands almost turning to claws as he tightens his grip on his back. Something in Steve’s heart squeezes. He knows that they’re all in over their fucking heads, okay? He fucking knows it. He’s been half scared this entire time, but seeing this raw emotion, this love between brothers? It makes it all the more fucking real.

It’s terrifying.

“I know, Will,” Jonathan mumbles. “I know.”

 

+++

 

Kali pulls up to an abandoned firehouse that looks like something out of a slasher flick. Most of the windows are boarded up or have black paint splashes across them. She parks around back, in some kind of loading dock, that’s half-hidden by massive amounts of trash and rusted dumpsters. Steve almost lands on a plank of wood with nails sticking out of it when he jumps down from his seat.

“This place is a hellhole,” Dustin says, wonder in his voice as he looks around.

Kali smirks, shouldering her backpack on. “Sorry it’s not the Ritz.”

“How do you know about this place?” Nancy asks, carefully sidestepping an old paint can.

“Someone I know kept a map of all the places that could be safe to hideout in,” Kali responds.

Jane snorts. “Safe?”

They all follow Kali pass the heaps of garbage up a ramp and towards a steel door with a rusted padlock on it. She digs into her inner coat pocket - and Steve swears, sometime soon, he’s gonna ask how much shit she has stored in there - and pulls out an old key. The padlock almost doesn’t unlock, but clicks after a few moments of jiggling. She pushes the door open; streams of light come in through the boards and paint.

Kali weaves around decayed wood, abandoned lockers and chopped up fire trucks like a pro, heading towards the center of the building. The group falls into a single-file line as they all follow her up some rickety-ass stairs towards what looks like a dorm. There’s an open concept - Steve’s mother’s words, not his - kitchen and common area and a hallway of closed doors. Steve’s half scared he’s gonna fall in through the floor with each step he takes, but the structure itself seems solid enough, so.

Maybe they’ll all live, for now.

Kali gestures towards the hallway. “There’s a bunch of bunks down that way, and the bathroom on the end of the hall. It’s not so bad.”

“Not so bad by what standard?” Max asks, poking at a dingy green couch.

“The dorms are cleaner,” Kali says.

“So, we’re going to hide out here for a few hours?” Dustin asks, glancing around.

There’s an underlying question: _do we even have time to be waiting around_?

Steve knows, logically, he should be more worried about demogorgons coming in through the Upside Down and demons like Brenner keeping the gate open. But fear tenses at his heart as he stares at Dustin. The kid looks like shit, honestly. Face still pale and a slight sheen over his skin. But overall, besides the coughing, nothing much is changing in him. It’s not at all like Hopper, not just yet. But for how long he’ll be okay…

Kali nods. “It’s best to go at night, catch them off guard.”

“Besides, we should all get some food in our stomachs and make a solid plan before we do anything,” Jonathan adds.

“Yeah, and Kali, you’ve been driving for hours,” Nancy says, nodding a little bit. “You’re probably exhausted.”

“And anyway, it’s the best thing to go when no one is there, right? At nighttime?” Lucas looks towards Kali, shrugging his backpack off. “We probably shouldn’t just go in there storming the place.”

Mike’s already nodding. “We don’t want innocent people getting hurt.”

Kali’s body goes very still for a moment, before she levels a stare at Mike. “None of these people are innocent.”

Mike frowns. “Well, what I mean is, there are janitors and doctors and stuff in there that probably don’t know -”

“They know,” Kali says, voice stern.

Steve sees Nancy shift uncomfortably out of the corner of his eye, like she’s about to step between Kali and Mike. But Jane does it first; she crosses her arms over her chest and glares up at Kali. Kali lifts her head slightly, staring back down at her. There's barely a height difference between the two, but it's noticeable enough with them glaring at each other like that. Steve knows they're not biologically related, but shit, do they have their twin death stares down pat. 

“Some have families, maybe,” Jane says. “Or some were forced -”

Kali laughs and it’s dark, bitter. “Right. Okay.”

“Kali,” Jane’s voice takes on a warning tone, and she steps forward.

“Why don’t we all, uhm, get some sleep,” Nancy says suddenly moving forward. “We have a lot to do tonight and we’re all tense.”

Kali’s gaze doesn’t even flicker from Jane, though she takes a deep breath like her patience is wearing thin. Jane’s mouth is etched into a frown, but she turns and walks away, stomping down the hallway. Steve watches as she practically throws the first door she sees open and slam it behind her. Mike startles and then immediately follows her, not even bothering to knock on the door. He closes it roughly behind him with no pretense. For a tense moment, there’s no sound except the foundation of the building settling and Dustin's loud, wet breathing. The kids all glance at each other awkwardly, like they don’t know what to do.

Steve’s right with them there.

“Sleep’s a great idea, Nancy,” Jonathan says, clearing his throat.

Kali shifts her weight and clenches her jaw. Without another word she turns on her heel and goes down the hallway as well. Steve watches her enter the last door on the left stiffly. But instead of slamming the door shut, she eases it closed gently. Steve feels frozen where he stands, unsure about whether he should follow her or not.

“I’m actually really hungry,” Will says finally. “Can we go get pizza or something?”

Steve exchanges a glance with Nancy and Jonathan.

Nancy nods. “Yeah, of course.”

“Can we all go?” Dustin asks, voice rasping. “I wanna see Chicago before I turn into a zombie and then we all die at the hands of the Mind Flayers.”

“Shut up, you little shit,” Steve rolls his eyes. “You’re not going to -“

"Mind Flayers don't even have hands," Max rolls her eyes. "Wait, do they?"

Will shakes his head. "No, it's more like -"

“Yeah, we can all go,” Nancy cuts Will off, her voice strained. “I’ll drive.”

“Great,” Lucas says, holding his hand out towards Steve. “Steve?”

Steve raises his eyebrows. “What?”

“Give us money, obviously,” Dustin pipes in.

A flash of annoyance goes through Steve. “Why do I have to give you money?”

“Didn’t you say your parents left you like, two hundred bucks?” Max asks.

“Yeah, what about it?”

Lucas looks at him like he’s fed up. “You’re the one with all the money, that’s what about it.”

Steve’s about to argue, but instead he just shakes his head and digs around in his back pocket for his wallet. Instead of pulling any cash out, he just slaps it down into Jonathan’s hands. Jonathan takes it from him, surprise coloring his face. Steve tries to ignore the knowing look that Nancy shoots him.

“I haven’t gotten any sleep in the past few days, I’m staying here to nap,” he says, only a little defensively.

“Right, of course,” Nancy says, licking her lips like she’s hiding a smile.

Steve refrains from rolling his eyes at her.

“Do you think Jane and Mike and Kali wanna come?” Will asks.

Jonathan winces slightly. “Why don’t we just… bring something back for them?”

“Yeah,” Will glances towards the hallway. “Yeah, okay.”

“Steve, what should we pick up for you?” Nancy asks. “And Kali?”

She’s teasing him, he knows; he can’t help the small smile on his face when he answers. “Whatever, Nance. Pepperoni?”

Steve waits until she and Jonathan herd the rest of the kids downstairs and back towards the van before he heads towards Kali’s room.

“Kali?” he calls softly, gently wrapping his knuckles on the wood.

A sigh comes through the door. “Steve.”

He waits for her to say anything else, but there’s no response. He wonders if he should just walk away. He shifts his weight and almost runs his hand through his hair. Instead, he looks down at the whorls and grains in front of him, taking a deep breath in.

He opens the door slowly, peeking inside the room before he enters. It’s sparsely furnished, but surprisingly clean-looking. There’s a single bed, the frame made of rusted metal and blue sheets, a nightstand with a lamp with no shade on it, and a small dresser. The one window is splashed with black paint completely, only the barest hint of light peeking through the gaps. Kali’s already sitting on the bed, her hands curled into fists on her knees. Her book bag sits just a few feet away on the floor. She looks back at Steve, an eyebrow barely raised.

Steve closes the door behind him, making his way over to the bed next to her.

“You can eat pork, right?” he asks. “Cause I just asked Nance to bring us pepperoni pizza.”

She turns her head and stares at him for a moment, like she can’t believe what a fucking moron he is. But there’s something endearing under the gaze, too. It's like - okay, Steve knows this is nuts, but it’s almost. Almost like she’s thinking she can’t believe that he’s _her_ fucking moron.

“Yeah, I eat pork,” she says.

She lies back on the bed and looks up at the ceiling. Steve follows suit. Their hands meet somewhere in the middle and Steve gently places his over hers. He wishes he could feel her skin under his palms, but the fucking bandages are in the way. She turns her head towards him, a stiff lock of her hair falling over her face. Steve looks at it, and feels her eyes tracing over his face. Before he can reach out to move it, she lifts her neck and flicks her head back. Her eyes are dark and tired when she places her head back down on the mattress.

“Is it safe to be on this thing?” Steve asks.

She snorts. “Yeah. My crew and I stayed here… before. We cleaned the place up, as best as we could.”

“So these are new sheet?”

“Do you see any shit stains or bug bites in them?”

He rolls his eyes. “But where’d you get them?”

She purses her lips. “I can make people see things, Steve. You don’t think that I use my talents to steal from department stores?”

“Oh,” the tips of his fingers press into the sheets, hand still over hers. “Oh.”

“Does that bother you?”

“It probably should,” he says instead of directly answering.

Her mouth ticks up a notch. “Right.”

“So.” he licks his lips and takes the fucking plunge. “What was that? With you and Jane?”

From this close, he can see all the muscles in her jaw working as she grits her teeth. He’s afraid that she’s not gonna answer, or worse, maybe, that she’ll tell him to get the fuck out. He’s still not really sure where the boundaries lie. It’s one thing when she’s volunteering information to him; it could be a completely different thing for him to ask her to tell him things. He opens his mouth again to just tell her to fuck it, she doesn’t have to answer; she doesn’t owe him or anyone an explanation.

But she speaks first.

“Jane… ” Kali pauses. “When she came to find me a few months ago, it was amazing. Like part of me was whole again, being reunited. But… we’ve been through different things, since Hawkins. Jane hasn’t had to go through some of the things I have. And vice versa, I guess.”

Steve stays quiet.

“Our experiences shape us, they inform the choices that we make,” Kali says. “And when it came down to it, Jane and I wanted to make very different choices.”

“What do you mean?”

Her eyes sharpen slightly, refocusing on his face. “Jane believes in redemption.”

“And you?”

“I believe in justice.”

“Are they mutually exclusive?”

Steve thinks about himself last year and all the years before that, about what a dickhead he was. Not only to Nancy and Jonathan, but also to almost everyone. Back when he thought the most important thing in the world was fucking getting laid and stupid basketball games. Before he almost got killed by a monster and kept a spiked baseball bat and saved a bunch of kids from becoming demo-dog lunch. He thinks about trying to be a good person while not really fucking knowing what that means, where he lives in a world that the only reason why he’s done anything worthwhile was because of a fluke. Because he happened to date a girl who was kinda connected to all this other shit, where he just stumbled into being... a hero?

No.

A nothing.

Who just happened to know how to use a fucking spiked bat. 

“I used to think so, but now, I don’t know,” Kali says. “But… Jane also believes that she can keep her people safe. She’s still young enough to think she can trust the world, trust that there are good places and better people. And I know that’s just not the case.”

“But...” Steve pauses, trying to think of how he wants to say this. “But you came to Hawkins for her, didn’t you? To try to protect her?”

Kali sighs, but otherwise doesn’t respond.

Steve tilts his head back, looking at the peeling paint and mildew dotting the ceiling. Parts of it look bleached white, as if someone tried to scrub away all of the stains and nastiness but stopped halfway through. His body relaxes into the mattress beneath him, and Kali starts humming something that he can’t quite place; it’s just loud enough, right in his ear, for him to hear over the sounds of Chicago.

Exhausted as fuck, he falls asleep a few moments later.

 

+++

 

When Steve jerks awake, it’s to an almost oppressive darkness.

He sits straight up, mouth dry and chest heaving. For a moment, he can’t tell if his eyes are open or not because of how fucking dark it is in the room. He forgets himself for a moment, instinctually reaching towards a pillow, his fingers scrambling for his knife. It’s only after he hears a siren go off, somewhere far outside of the building, that he remembers where he is.

He almost wants to laugh, but the fear in his chest is so restrictive that he can barely manage to breath. As he wakes up more, he realizes he's alone in the room. He sees threads of light coming in through the paint-splattered window. He stumbles over to the window, trying to jerk it open. It takes a bit of effort - the sill digs into the flesh of his fingers and he’s still wary about the bandages wrapped around his fucking palms - but it goes up eventually with a large screech.  The last bits of sunlight stream in, almost blinding Steve, as he sucks down semi-fresh city air. It tastes too thick on his tongue and almost slimy, but it’s fucking better than nothing.

The last bits of his nightmare have already faded away, but he knows it was a bad one. His stomach is tangled in knots and he can feel the sweat cooling on his back already. They’re usually pretty bad when he’s stressed, so he’s not exactly fucking surprised. But waking up in a strange place with no light made it worse to wake up. And yeah, Steve’s from the fucking suburbs, where there’s only one streetlight per street, but shit. He’s not afraid to admit he’s slept with his nightstand lamp on a few times a week, ever since the tunnels. The nightstand light was on when he fell asleep, so he's pretty sure Kali must've switched it off before she left the room. 

Steve leans out of the window, enjoying the frigid breeze try to run through his hair. It’s still pretty stiff even though he’s been sleeping on it. He takes a deep breath in, wondering where Kali went and if everyone else is back from their pizza run yet. He sits for a moment, wondering if he’s hungry or not; but all that he can feel is anxious cramping in his stomach. Almost absent-mindedly, he rubs just below his ribcage, trying to fucking massage the feeling into submission, or something.

Voices float down to his ears, and it takes him a moment to recognize them. He glances up towards the roof of the building. All he can see is a flash of purple hair, and then cigarette ash almost falls on his face. Steve scowls, about to call up, but the words die in his throat.

“You hurt me on purpose,” Jane says. “When you made me see Papa.”

Kali’s voice is like steel covered in silk. “I only showed you what I thought you needed to see -”

“You got in my head! You used your powers against me -”

“Because you wouldn’t use your powers against him."

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you could have tracked down Brenner at any time, Jane. You could have finished him, but instead, you pretended like he was a monster under the bed. Like if you didn’t look for him, that had to mean he doesn’t exist.”

“He died, I thought he died -”

“Thought? Or intentionally didn’t want to know?”

“That doesn’t matter!” Jane’s voice teeters on full-out rage. “You hurt me!”

There’s silence for a beat, and then Kali’s voice is gentler.

“I regret that every day, Jane. Ever since I saw the look on your face when you ran away from me.”

It’s Jane’s turn to pause.

“I didn’t run. I saved my friends.”

“That’s not what it felt like. It felt like you came to find me and then changed your mind once you got to know me. Like you... ”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Steve wonders what kind of look Kali has on her face, now. He thinks it’s the one where she closes herself off, where her chin lifts and her jaw ticks just ever so slightly. The one that - shit, and it’s only been a few days - already hurts for him to see. Especially since he’s seen a whole fucking host of emotions on her face, because shit, when she wants to show something, she shows it all the way.

“Friends don’t lie,” Jane says finally. “What you did - that was a lie.”

Kali sighs. “Lying is necessary to survive.”

“Not to your friends,” Jane insists.

“Yes, Jane, sometimes to your friends.”

“No!”

Another sigh. “What about family, Jane? Does family lie? Does family hurt?”

“Only family like Papa,” Jane says.

Kali chuckles a little; it’s weak. “Ouch.”

It falls silent again. Steve wonders if he should stick his head back inside, if he’s already heard too much and invaded in a place where he’s not wanted.

“I’m good at collecting people,” Kali says slowly. “The outcasts, the misfits. But I’m not so good at… letting people collect me.”

“I’ll collect you,” Jane says, so loyally it makes Steve’s heart clench. “You’re my sister. My family.”

“Like Papa?”

“No. Like Mike, like Dad.”

“Like Dad?” Kali pauses. “Your policeman?”

“Yes.”

Kali’s voice is soft. “Jane...”

“Sometimes good things happen,” Jane says. “Sometimes.”

“I don’t want to see you be hurt. Not the way I was. You… after this is all done, you and I can leave, Jane. Just leave and never come back. You don’t have to stay in Hawkins, hiding away in some lab where -”

Steve misses the end of the sentence, because white noise suddenly fills his ears. He doesn’t know why his reaction to hearing Kali say she’s going to leave sends panic through his body, but it fucking does.

He thinks about never seeing her again and his breath hitches slightly. He leans over slightly, trying to remember how to breathe. He tells himself that he’s just panicking because of all the shit they’ll have to do at the lab. Or that he’s imprinted on Kali like a baby duckling or some shit because of what they went through with Hopper.

But he knows even as he thinks it it’s a fucking lie, that somewhere along the way, Kali has become a fixture in his heart. She’s shoved her way in with her half-hidden smiles and whispered secrets and total badassery and he just fucking wants more. More of her, more of them, more of this. As long as they’re together.

Shit.

How did this happen?

“ - Don’t want to kill anyone else,” Jane’s voice cuts through his panicked haze.

Wait, what?

“That’s your choice,” Kali says. “But it’s not going to be mine.”

“Kali -”

“And you need to decide what you’re going to do when we face down Brenner,” Kali says. “Because you can’t pull with him what you did with that other laboratory rat. I’m going to kill him, with or without you.”

A loud knocking on the door startles Steve, and he has to grab at the windowsill to keep from falling out. He pushes himself back into the room, hoping that Kali and Jane didn’t hear him cursing. Without waiting for him to respond, the door swings open. Dustin and Lucas stand on the other side of the door, staring at him with unimpressed looks on their faces.

“We brought you back pizza,” Dustin says. “I promise I didn’t cough on it.”

Steve curls his lip up in disgust. “You know, I didn’t think you did until you fucking said that.”

Dustin shrugs. “Just thought you should know.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “What took you so long?”

Lucas says, almost guiltily, “The pizza place we went to had an arcade in it.”

Steve feels his face soften at these kids, these little shits who can stand around for hours playing Pac-Man or whatever while knowing they’re gonna face down uncertain doom come nightfall. He stops himself from reaching for them and just - just hugging the shit out of them, these ridiculous, brave little assholes standing in front of him.

“Where’s Kali and Jane?” Lucas asks, peering into the room.

Steve says, “I think they’re on the roof.”

Both of the kids visibly brighten with excitement.

“Do you think they’re testing out their powers up there?” Lucas asks. “That’s pretty cool -”

“Ohhh, do you think we can go up and watch?” Dustin asks.

Steve rolls his eyes. “I think they’re just talking.”

“Oh,” Dustin droops in disappointment, before a coughing fit starts. He turns his whole body away, hacking underneath the handkerchief. Lucas looks like he wasn’t to reach out and slap his back, but stays where he’s standing instead. Steve feels his face morph into a frown and goes to reach for Dustin, fear coursing through his veins. But Dustin just coughs loudly and phlegmy, one last time, before turning back to look at him and Lucas. 

“Gross,” Dustin says, voice rough but cheerful.

“You should probably go get them, Steve,” Lucas says. “We have to solidify our plan for breaking into the Lab.”

“Yeah,” Dustin nods. “We can’t just run in there without being organized -”

“Cause that’s what you shits are known for,” Steve says wryly. “Being organized.”

“Don’t be rude, Steven,“ Dustin says snottily.

Steve shakes his head and makes his way towards them in the doorway. He shoves at them gently to get out, and looks down the hall. Laughter floats in from the common area. One of the doors is propped open, and Steve realizes that it’s the door leading to the roof. A set of rickety stairs spirals upward, sunset light shafting down.

He climbs up the stairs slowly, wary of the steps breaking in on him at any moment. When he reaches the top, Kali and Jane are still talking. He hovers by the staircase, just watching them. They sit side by side on the edge of the roof, which is covered in snow. It's stopped snowing, so everything looks crisp and clear. A couple of cigarette butts are littered around Kali’s feet, and he wonders how long she’s been sitting up there, chain-smoking. He hears Jane ask Kali something about ‘doing the butterflies again’; Kali holds her palm open in front of her, a slight smile on her face.

Steve clears his throat. “Hey.”

Jane glances at him, surprised and maybe a little annoyed. Kali just nods her head at him, looking almost bored to see him standing there. Her hand curls into a fist on her lap, and she angles herself slightly so her body faces him. Steve gets the feeling of behind out of place, knowing that he’s interrupting something between them. He looks behind them a bit, trying to see if there’s a view. But all he catches sight of are a bunch of other old, broken down buildings that are probably infested with mice and mildew.

“Everyone’s back with food,” he says.

Kali nudges Jane’s shoulder with her own. “You should go down, get something to eat. You’ll need your strength.”

Jane asks, “You?”

“I’ll be down soon,” Kali says.

Jane scrunches her face slightly, before looking back at Steve again. She gives him a suspicious look, like she’s still not really sure who the hell he is and why he’s even there. Steve bites on his tongue and the words _you and me both, kid_. But Jane gets up anyway and slides past Steve. She almost shoves him and at first, he can’t tell if it’s intentional or not. A spike of annoyance goes through him, but he reminds himself she’s just a kid. And it’s no different if Dustin or Max did the same shit -

Her voice is low and oddly threatening when she speaks. She hovers by the stairs; she’s a good foot shorter than him, so all he can really see are dark, menacing eyes that don’t really fucking match with her mop of curly hair at all. He’s suddenly reminded of her fucking throwing a demo-dog into the Byers’s front window and for a moment, he thinks this is how his life ends. A thirteen year old telepathically throwing him off the roof for God knows the fuck what.

That’s my sister,” she says ominously.

“Okay,” Steve says, not even ashamed that his voice cracks a little.

“She likes you,” Jane says. “But if you hurt her…”

Jane flounces - honest to fucking God, he doesn’t know how else to describe it, alright - down the stairs. Her laughter comes back up as she greets Dustin and Lucas and for a moment, Steve can only just stand there, shocked and slightly scared. Because he literally just got the shotgun talk from some kid who could probably melt his brain without even thinking. Steve stays there for a moment, mouth opening slightly and then jaw clicking shut. He’s not really sure what the fuck to do with any of this information. Though it makes him feel a little better that whatever the fuck he’s feeling for Kali - well, if it’s evident to Jane, then it must mean that she’s feeling him too.

Steve settles on nodding his head to himself, resigned to this, before moving to sit next to Kali. She quirks an eyebrow at him and then pulls another cigarette out. She sticks it in her mouth but doesn’t light it, just shifts slightly so that their shoulders rub against each other. They sit quietly, the last rays of the sunset already fading away. He can still see her face in the city lights, though. The warm yellow glow against her skin so beautifully, and Steve thinks about apologizing for interrupting.

“I know you overheard most of that, Steve,” Kali says after a moment. “And it’s fine.”

Steve almost chokes. “Is it really?”

She turns her head, dark eyes catching onto his. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”

“Why are you so okay and open about snooping?”

She laughs right in his face; it’s the most endearing shit he’s ever seen.

“I don’t know,” she says. “Maybe it’s because I grew up in a classified government lab, or maybe it’s because I can make people see whatever they want. But it’s probably because… ”

“Because?”

“It’s easier to keep track of my secrets when I don’t keep them about stupid shit,” she says.

He quirks his eyebrows at her. “Going through my bathroom cabinet and seeing what kinda hairspray I use is stupid shit?”

She shrugs. “Only because I’ve already perfected my hair with the spray I use.”

He smiles at her, lopsided. “Right.”

They sit silently for a few minutes. Steve’s fingertips and toes are getting cold in the Chicago nighttime winter, but he doesn’t want to go downstairs. Not just yet. Up here, he can kinda pretend that this is all normal, that they don’t have responsibilities. That they literally aren’t about to go save the world and he’s just some guy and she’s this beautiful girl who, for some reason, laughs at his stupid jokes and shares her secrets with him.

She breaks the silence. “Have you ever killed anyone, Steve?”

He pauses, answers with a question. “Does a demogorgon count?”

“No.”

He doesn’t say anything for a moment. “But you have.”

“Yes.”

He’s not sure why this next question comes out of his mouth. “Is Kali your real name? Or… like, is it the name your parents gave you?”

The corner of her mouth ticks up. “What, you think I called myself that after I broke out of the lab? Like some kind of avenging hit man, or something?”

He tilts his head slightly, mouth twisting apologetically. “Well...”

She rolls her eyes. “As far as I remember, this is the only name I’ve known.”

“Me too,” Steve offers. “You know - my name.”

She looks at him carefully, dark eyes scanning over his face. It’s a familiar look to him, now; the one she always has on before she’s about to reveal something personal about him. As he stares back at her, a strange feeling washes over him. He doesn’t fucking know if it’s hope or fear or something else; but he likes that so far, she’s always found him worthy.

“As a figure of death, Kali doesn’t have to mean destruction or hatred,” she says. “She can be a protector, or liberation. Some people see her as the same as Mother Nature.”

“Really?”

She nods. “Just like… you know, my powers aren’t all darkness and gloom and hurting people. It… can be like magic, too. Something beautiful, like creation.”

Something catches in his mind. “Like… Jane asked you to make butterflies?”

“Yes.” Kali smiles at him, almost bashfully; she ducks her head down slightly. “Would you like to see them?”

Steve’s breath catches in his throat as the weight behind Kali’s words hit him full force. He doesn’t speak but just nods at her, trying to show her with his face that he knows how important this is; God does he fucking know.

Her smile ticks up a bit and she nods back at him.

Almost like they’re in sync, they both shift until they’re facing one another. One of Steve’s legs dangles off of the roof, and Kali tucks both of hers underneath her. It pushes her forward and their knees brush. Kali gently places her hands on top of Steve’s, his palms facing upward in his lap.

Kali takes a breath in through her nose; when she exhales, there’s an explosion of color.

The entire roof has transformed into a neon garden, and Steve has never seen anything like this in his entire fucking life.

Bright, bright green grass sways softly in the winter wind and beautiful vines crawl up black trellises. Incredibly red roses, vibrant violets, and highlighter yellow daffodils blossom all around the vines, amongst thick beautiful leaves. Steve can’t even see the city beyond the life of the garden, can barely even remember what the roof looked like before, barren and icy and dead. Butterflies in every color, looking like living neon signs, softly fly and dance around each other near Steve.

He doesn’t even realize that he’s standing up, trying to reach out and touch a brilliant blue butterfly until he hears Kali’s soft laugh next to him. When he looks down at her, she’s standing beside him, smile wide and teeth glowing in the colorful, radiant lights.

Steve’s breath catches in his throat because shit, shit, all of this?

It’s too fucking beautiful. Kali, standing there, so proud and full of joy watching him take in everything she’s made, is too fucking beautiful.

And Steve - Steve can’t fucking help it, okay, looking at her face in the glow of the lights and the pure, unadulterated happiness in her eyes as she stares up at him.

He reaches out and kisses her.

His hands cup at her cheeks and he wishes he could fucking feel her skin under his palms, but tangling his fingers into the hair framing her face will just have to fucking do. His heart is so full and his skin buzzes so much that he’s almost shaking as his lips touch hers. And it’s not a chaste kiss, not a questioning kiss; it’s an answering kiss. Because as his mouth slides over hers and her tongue swipes against his gums and their teeth clack just once - in a pretty awful moment, no offense, enamel on enamel is horrible - he’s telling her so much and not fucking enough.

Steve’s hands slide over her shoulders and down her back, pulling Kali in closer to him. He feels her hands grip at his jacket lapel before sliding up, tangling into the almost-soft hair at the back of his neck. Kali kisses him back with as much passion as he’s kissing her, and everything is just lit up inside of him. It’s like she’s taken all the neon lights and the colors and pushed them into him with just her lips and her fingertips and her fucking tongue. It’s amazing and messy and just. Everything and nothing Steve ever fucking imagined.

When they pull away, it’s not too far from one another. Steve keeps his grip on Kali tight, head tilted down towards her mouth. She looks up at him, eyes dark and hot, her fingers knotted in his hair. Her mouth quirks up into a smile; he wants to bite at it.

“I thought I told you not to manhandle me until I asked you to,” she says.

Her face is blank but her eyes are dancing. Her voice is low and raspy, and something swells inside of him because, fuck yeah. He fucking did that, he fucking put that look of pure desire and teasing on her face. 

Steve closes his eyes for a moment, a grin splitting onto his mouth. “Yeah, well.”

“Though I have to say, I thought I was going to have to be the one to initiate this,” Kali says.

Steve almost snorts. ”You did.”

“You kissed me, Steve.”

“Yeah, well, you literally just blew my mind with that cool-ass trick you did,” he says. “What the fuck else was I supposed to do?”

Kali actually does snort, before moving her face. She noses between his jacket and his scarf and then starts to kiss at his neck. Steve’s grip on her tightens when he feels her teeth, sharp and blunt, scrape over his pulse point.

“We’re going to have to get going soon,” Kali mutters against his skin.

“Uh huh,” Steve replies. “Sure.”

He knows she’s right. He knows.

But.

He still nudges her face up towards him and kisses the shit out of her anyway. And it’s not because they’re probably gonna fucking die tonight trying to destroy the Mind Flayers and the Upside Down; it’s because he fucking wants to, okay. And monster hunting can wait while he holds her like he doesn’t want to let go and while he kisses her like it’s a promise that he’s never gonna fucking give her up.

 

+++

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, leave me a comment and let me know what you think! You're all rockstars!!!!!1!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BYEEEEEEE your comments had me laughing, crying, squealing. 
> 
> You precious angels! I'm so glad that you're still with me and are still hype about this! Because I got some major plot action and some sweet Stali moments coming at cha! 
> 
> Enjoy reading, loves ;)

+++

 

He obviously lets her go, though. He’s not a fucking idiot, they have shit to do.

Well.

That, and Dustin’s loud, wet coughs resound in his ears as the kid comes stomping up to the roof.

Steve pulls away from Kali first, grateful for the dark sky. His heart skips a beat for a moment, remembering the beautiful vibrancy of the garden and her face in the glow of it all. Kali runs her nails down his jacket before stepping away from him. Her eyes stray from his face to his hair, and he wonders just how badly her fingers have rucked it up.

Dustin’s head pops up through the opening. “What the - are you guys kissing up here?”

He sounds scandalized and a little bit awed. Steve rolls his eyes and steps away from Kali completely. His hands itch to reach out and take her hand, but he doesn’t. For one, it’s fucking scary - in that thrilling, first date kinda way - that he even wants to do it. Secondly, he’s not entirely sure she wouldn’t push him off of the roof if he tried. She glances at him, smirking, like she knows exactly what he’s thinking.

“Steve, you asshole, I’m minutes away from turning into a zombie, and you’re here trying to put the moves on El’s sister?” Dustin glares. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Hey!” Steve puts his hands on his hips gently, glaring right back. “Don’t you call me an asshole, you little shit.”

“Well, don’t act like an asshole and I won’t call you one,” Dustin snarks back.

“And you’re not gonna turn into a fucking zombie, okay?” Steve asks.

“Could you two just get down here, please, so we can make sure that I don’t?” Dustin asks.

He disappears back downstairs, but Steve thinks he hears the kid mumbling something about high schoolers having no sense and they don’t see him running around making out with people during times of crises. It’s on the tip of Steve’s tongue to shout back _yeah but you’d have to find someone to kiss, wouldn’t you_? But he doesn’t. Because he loves the little shit, he really does, and there’s a difference between joking around on each other or being rude or crass and just being fucking cruel.

And as long as he knows Dustin, he’s never, ever gonna be cruel.

Kali’s shoulder brushes against his arm as she walks past him, going back towards the staircase. Before she descends she pauses, staring at him over her shoulder. A slight, intimate smile is on her face; the wind whips the tips of her hair around just slightly. He just. He stops and stares at her, for just a moment longer, silhouette outlined by the background of the city lights. Her gaze softens, and she holds her hand out towards him.

“Come on, god of nothing,” she says.

 

+++

 

It’s all business when they get back down to the common area, though.

Steve sloppily eats a slice of pizza that’s more like a fucking pie than anything else, tomato sauce dripping onto his pants leg and the cracked linoleum underneath him. Kali kinda eats like it’s her last fucking meal - and maybe it will be, good fucking lord - messily scarfing down her slice. With a black permanent marker, Lucas has written on the floor _PLAN TO CLOSE THE GATE TO THE UPSIDE DOWN._ Everyone’s name and a task are written underneath it, including _Kali - take us to the Lab, make sure we’re invisible to the guards_ and _El - find Brenner, close the gate_. Steve’s name is listed next to _provide melee support_.  

Dustin jabs his finger at the floor. “Kali will drive us over to the lab, where we’ll break in with Nancy’s sweet lock picking skills.”

Nancy smiles bashfully, and Steve wonders just when she had the time to master all these practical skills, cause they sure as hell don’t teach girls how to fix a flat and break into government labs in Home Economics. He catches the small, sweet smile that Jonathan is staring at her with, and it makes him wanna smile a bit, too. They really match each other well, he thinks. And it’s fucking weird and amazing to not feel his heart twist every time he looks at Nancy, now.

He wonders how much of that is Kali, how much of that is his own damn growth, and how much of both are intertwined with one another.

“Once we’re inside, we’ll provide support while El tries to locate Brenner, and hopefully, the gate,” Will says. “If any guards come, Kali, then it’s on you to make us seems invisible to them.”

Kali nods seriously. “Right.”

“Hurting as a last resort,” Jane adds, pointedly not looking at her sister.

“All of this is a last resort,” Kali says, face calm and voice even.

Will pipes up. “Once we locate the gate, I’ll try to - you know, use my True Sight to figure out where the Mind Flayers are. Steve, Lucas, Max and Dustin will act as guards here, while everyone else goes into the Upside Down. Nancy, Jonathan, and Mike will be backup, I’ll be the guide, and Kali and El will destroy the Elder Brain.”

“Hopefully that kills all of the Mind Flayers,” Max pipes in.

“And if the Inquisition gives us any trouble, Nance, Mike and I will set them on fire,” Jonathan nods.

No one says anything about how dangerous this all is. Not a word between any of the older teens in the room is spoken about how the fate of the world is resting on a bunch of punk ass kids and their slingshots and two rogue lab experiments. Steve takes a deep breath, nodding his head along to all of the plans.

No one says anything, but the feelings of dread and coursing adrenaline are thick in the room anyway.

“Steve, you’re on zombie me duty, just in case,” Dustin says, before hacking up green-black slime.

“Kid -”

“The closer we get to the Upside Down, the worse he could get,” Will cuts him off, face upset even as he speaks.

Dustin says, “So you gotta look after me, alright?”

Steve tries not to clench his hands into fists on his knees. “Yeah, yeah, asshole. Alright.”

He doesn’t want to think about what “looking after him” might entail, if he gets as bad as Hopper, before they manage to close the gate.

“After we kill the brain, we’ll leave through the gate,” Mike continues. “We’ll leave through the gate, and then El will close it for good.”

Nancy’s gaze is fierce as she stares at Kali. “And then, once that’s done - we’ll go after Brenner. Whatever help you need.”

the furosity in Nancy’s voice startles Steve for a moment. But then he slowly realizes that for Nancy, this is about Barb, too. 

Jane glances away, not looking at anyone, as Mike squeezes her shoulder gently. Kali shifts in her seat, eyes hard, as she nods back at Nancy. Steve wants to reach for Kali, wants to touch her knee or her chin or her hair and tell her they’re gonna get this son of a bitch. He wants to tell her that everything will be fine, afterwards. That they’re gonna succeed.

But he’s gotten his ass beat too many times to really believe any of those thoughts. And he’s kicked enough ass to know that no matter what happens, it never really helps one hundred percent. It never really heals the wounds left from all the shit inflicted on you nor does it make up for all the harm you’ve done along the way to justice. Or vengeance. Whatever the fuck.

And he wishes he could tell all of this to her, too. Except he knows he’d be preaching to the fucking choir, and anyway, what’s his tale of almost getting pummeled to death by Billy in the face of the tortures she’d survived in the Lab?

He doesn’t realize he’s staring at the side of her face until she turns her head just so. Her dark eyes pierce his gaze, and then she nods at him too. He doesn’t know what it means, not exactly. But he nods back anyway, and tries his best to even his breathing. His palms are damp underneath the bandages, and he already has an itch to grab his bat and start swinging.

 

+++

 

The Chicago National Lab sits somewhere around Lake Michigan, in a secluded-ass area that would have Steve creeped out if he hadn’t seen the Hawkins Lab originally. A ten foot tall barbed wire fence surrounds the complex and there are military-grade floodlights every dozen feet or so. They don’t flash lights over the area; rather they look like beacons, lighting up the area, where the lights from the rest of the city don’t stretch. Kali parks the van in a semi-secluded area near a dirt path by the lake, where there are half-finished construction projects blocking most of the views of the water. Steve peers up at the Lab through the side window. The entire building looks dark and abandoned, but he’s seen enough to know that appearances can be fucking deceiving.

“We entered the tunnels about half a mile that way,” Kali says, jerking her head towards what looks like an unkempt state park. “And the main entrance to the building is around the other side.”

“They’ve probably upped security from what was in Hawkins,” Jonathan mutters from the bed of the van.

Kali nods, and pats her jacket; Steve hears papers crinkle. “One of my crew was able to case the building though. There’s a service entrance around here. We just have to be able to get through the barbed wire without being seen.”

Jane’s voice sounds amused. “No problem.”

Steve watches as Kali flashes her a devious smile through the rearview mirror. “No problem at all.”

And for a good few panicked heartbeats, it is no problem at all.

They walk single-file towards the fence, Kali with her back stiff and her hand up. Just once, an armed guard passes by them. But it’s more like he’s trying to sneak a quick cigarette break than trying to investigate any strange noises coming from the area. Kali lifts her other hand to her mouth, signaling for them all to be quiet as she directs her attention on the guard. The kids all huddle together with Jonathan and Nancy standing slightly in front of them. Steve hauls Dustin up against his side, pressing his palm over the cloth over the kid’s mouth, just in case he has another coughing fit. Jane looks ready to make the guard fly right into Lake Michigan at the first inkling that he knows they’re there.

But the guard just mumbles something about fucking night shifts, that he’s worked here long enough to not deserve this, before stomping on the butt and walking back towards the main gate. Steve only breathes a sigh of relief when Dustin shoves him away. They all watch the guard disappear into the night; Max’s head lolls back, the muscles in her arm clenching as she drops Lucas’s hand.

“Like we weren’t even there,” Lucas says, eyes wide in awe at Kali.

Steve rolls his eyes. “You’ve seen this trick before, doofus.”

“Yeah, but not with so many people,” Dustin says, clearing his throat slightly, roughly.

Jonathan shakes his head and pulls two pairs of wire cutters out of the book bag on his back. He and Nancy make quick work out of cutting a five-foot hole in the fence. Steve utters a quick prayer of thanks that the fence isn’t electrified or some shit. He mindlessly thinks that for a high-level military experimental facility, the security is surprisingly lax. Maybe it’s just because it’s late at night on a weekend.

Maybe.

As they file in through the fence and onto the property, the hair on the back of Steve’s neck stands up. He’d been the Hawkins Lab; the security wasn’t all that there either, beyond the gate keeping everyone out of the facility. But that was because the Lab was in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. This was Chicago; this was a big city. And after everything that happened at the other facility, shouldn’t there have been more precautions around the property? Even with someone who could make people see anything that she wanted, how could it be this easy to cross into enemy territory?

His eyes catch Nancy’s.

She’s standing off to the side slightly, head tilted up as she looks around the property. They seem to be standing inside a mostly deserted parking lot, just a few cars parked closer to the facility. There are streetlights around the lot but none of them are lit. She’s staring hard at them, before spinning slowly and looking around the ridges of the fence.

“Kali,” she says slowly, “could your powers trick security cameras?”

Kali shifts her gaze from the building to Nancy. “No, but we don’t have to worry about that. We watched the place a few times, and there doesn’t seem to be any cameras.”

The frown etched into Nancy’s mouth deepens. “Huh.”

Jonathan helps Max through the hole, making sure her hair doesn’t get caught on the jagged metal. Kali steps closer to Nancy and Steve, lowering her voice. Something small and tight forms in Steve’s stomach.

“This seems too easy, I know,” she says.

Nancy nods. “Way too easy.”

“So what, what does that mean?” Steve asks.

Kali directs her dark gaze at him. “It’s going to be hell when we enter the building, that’s what.”

“If it’s this easy to get onto the property, getting inside or getting to the gate is going to be a hundredfold worse than the Lab at Hawkins, probably,” Nancy says, voice soft.

Steve reaches for the bat sticking out of his book bag. His fingers curl around the grains in the wood and his fists tighten around it. It’s an anchor, something to hold him steady as he looks at the little shitheads, all of them through the fence already. Jane stares up at the building with wide, round eyes and a sharp, clenched jaw. Mike moves behind her, slowly reaching for her hand like he doesn’t want to frighten her. When Steve looks away, Nancy is staring at them with a fierce look.

“We’ll keep them as safe as we can, Nance,” he says.

“I know,” Nancy says, but she shifts her head, directing her next words at Kali. “I trust you.”

Kali nods and leads the way towards the building without a backward glance. Even with the sounds of the city in the distance, Steve can only hear their footsteps on the asphalt. Their pounding rings in his ears, and it takes him a moment to realize that’s just the sound of his own beating heart. His mouth is completely dry and he thinks, well, fuck it. This is it, this is where it’s all gonna go down. Where it all might end.

He knows it’s fucking foolish, but. He wishes he had kissed Kali one last time, in the van on the way over here or right after she parked. He knows she can handle herself and, to be frank, if any of them make it out alive, it’ll probably be her and Jane. He should be thinking about his own ass right now, or his focus should be more on the little shits. And it is, a little. Except he’s not thinking that he should have left his parents a note or tried to call them one last time to tell him he loves them; he’s not thinking that he should let Nancy and Jonathan know he’s okay with them, that fuck, they’re the best friends that he’s ever had.

He’s thinking that he wants to feel Kali’s lips on his again, one last time.

“It might be alarmed,” Nancy warns as she bends down in front of the service entrance door.

Kali takes a step back, head dipped and hand up in just in case. Steve moves to stand next to her, bat heavy on his shoulder and his arms tensed for whatever might come. Jane stands on Kali’s other side, hands up as well. Jonathan is right next to Steve, Nancy’s pistol not even trembling in his hands. The rest of the little shits stand just behind them, an assortment of not-really weapons in their hands. But Steve knows them well enough to know how much of a distraction or how much pain they might be able to inflict; that it just might give them enough time to get away, if…

Nancy makes picking locks seem quick and easy.

The resounding clicks ring in Steve’s ear and it’s just a few moments later before she’s wiping her hair out of her face and standing back up. She looks at them over her shoulder, eyes dark and only a little bit prideful, before she turns the knob and throws the door open. Steve’s entire body buzzes in anticipation of something, anything; armed guards, a loud blaring noise, even Brenner himself, the image of him cutting open that young boy - Anthony, his mind pesters him, Anthony - frozen in his brain.

Nothing comes.

They all find themselves staring into a dimly lit hallway. There’s an armored door and a set of stairs at the end of the hall, but otherwise it’s empty. As they collectively inch closer to the door, the strong smell of antiseptic hits Steve’s nostrils.

He can’t help but glance down at Kali, eyes hard and shoulder set. Her jaw clenches and she takes a small, shallow breath. Her eyes flutter closed for a moment, and he knows where’s she gone, inside of her own head. He feels utterly helpless and wants to comfort her. But if he couldn’t even do that in his own bedroom, there’s no way he’s gonna be able to accomplish that under the harsh fluorescent lights.

“Hey,” Steve says, throat tight. “Let’s hunt some monsters.”

Kali’s eyes meet his and it’s almost like he can see the yearning in them to smile at him. But her mouth stays stiff and she just glances away, before leading them all into the building. She takes them over to the concrete staircase, peering into the stairs leading down. There’s a heavy metal door bolted in numerous places at the bottom of the staircase. A red light bulb sits above the doorway; it's definitely an alarm, of some sort then. Steve’s heart pounds harder in his chest than it ever has before, and he feels like his breathing is much too loud.

“Looks right,” Jane says, voice hard.

“It might take me a bit longer to break into that one,” Nancy says, voice low.

Jane glances at her over her shoulder. “I got this one.”

Kali nods at her. “Do you want to try to find Brenner now, or?”

Jane squares her shoulders. “We get in first. Then I’ll find him.”

Kali simply nods at her, moving back. Steve takes her lead and pushes Max and Lucas behind him slightly as Jane takes her position at the top of the stairs. She lifts up her hand, not a muscle in her arm trembling. Her mouth forms into a silent scream and her fingers clench. Like she’s crumpling a piece of aluminum foil in her fist, the door screeches and shifts, ripping away from the hinges and forming into a ball on the staircase.

The moment is tense as they all wait, again, for something to happen.

When nothing does, Jane trips down the stairs, Kali right next to her. They walk around the door-turned-sphere as if they’re sidestepping roadkill. Steve pauses for a moment, watching them go through the doorway with the same tight shoulders and smooth, angry confidence.

Sisters, through and through.

He follows along the back of the group with Jonathan down the stairs and into the darkened hallway. They pass by locked doors - plain brown, wooden doors with small windows, showing nothing but tables, cabinets and chairs, like conference rooms - without slowing down. Steve almost trips over a small split in the bump in the floor. He looks down, noticing a thin strip of metal that runs along the floor and up the walls, meeting in the ceiling. The strips run along the corners where wall meets ceiling, al up and down the hall. There’s also a small hook, almost, hanging right underneath him, and he pauses, turning around fully to stare at it. He can’t see exactly what it is, at this angle, but something about it bothers him.

He takes a step back, on the other side of the metal strip, to look up at it some more.

“Steve?”

He looks down to see Kali staring at him from down the hall. They’re all standing in front of another high-security door, which Jane is already in the process of turning into a perfect ball again. Steve starts to walk towards them, but something feels too wrong.

A feeling of dread crawls down his back. It reminds him of that childhood game that always left him shaking and feeling gross, where you pretend to crack an egg on someone’s head and run your fingers not quite down their hair and face. The pretend feeling of yolk running down had always skeeved him out, and it’s exactly what he’s feeling now.

Steve moves to stand next to Kali as Jane carelessly tosses the metal door down the hall. They all step into a dark room. Steve’s shoulders brush against Kali’s. Somewhere near his right, he sees Nancy pressing her hands against the wall, looking for a lightswitch.

“It’s nothing,” Steve says, answering Kali’s question.

“It’s not,” her eyes are dark, tense. “This is all wrong. There’s -”

The light flicks on. For a split second, Steve takes in the room. It looks like some kind of massive lab, with a number of machines that Steve has no idea what they could possibly do. In the middle of the room is a round, glass tank with some kind of large basin on top of it. The glass is filled with water - or some kind of fluid that looks cloudy and briny, almost. A curved row of computers circle around the tank. The keyboards look like a control panel with all of the chairs and screens, like something right out of a bad 1970s sci-fi movie.

Mike’s frightened scream is the only warning they get before a chorus of demogorgon roars fills Steve’s ears.

“Shit!”

Everything happens almost too soon to comprehend.

Jane stands in the middle of the room, screaming and shooting demogorgons back with her powers, blood already dripping out of her nose. A blaring alarm goes off, and the entire room flashes in dark red light. Somewhere on the other side of the room, Steve catches sight of a heavy-duty metal door only halfway slid open as four demo-dogs run out and directly towards them.

Steve’s body goes into overdrive and reacts before his mind even knows what he’s doing.

He takes a few steps foward and fucking swings his bat, catching one of the demogorgons - demo-dogs, they’re not fully formed - in the face as it screeches. Distantly, he hears Nancy screaming for the kids to get out of the fucking room. But all Steve can focus on is the pain bursting through his palms and the sweet, sweet ache of his shoulders as he keeps swinging and hitting and bashing. Kali appears somewhere next to him, her pistol out and she crouches slightly and takes a careful, professional shot. He glances over to see her pop one right in its ugly, open mouth, teeth gnashing as dark blood spills out of its body. He smirks grimly and tries to spin around her, knocking the thing back as it brokenly tries to attack both of them again.

In his line of sight, Jonathan is bashing at a demo-dog with a crowbar, hitting it hard enough to make it slide back a few feet with a low whine. Jane has her hands shaped into claws towards it, leaving a space like a ball between her hands. Steve catches just a glimpse of her enraged yell as blood swiftly drips out of her nose and her fingers clench again and she tugs, she fucking tugs at the air. The demo-dog tenses for a moment and then its body pulls apart. It’s like watching someone bite and tear into a fucking drumstick only there’s slime and blood and tendons flying everywhere.

Something tugs at his jacket and he spins, almost bashing Max in the face. He stumbles back, sliding in demo-dog blood as he catches himself, breath stuck in his throat. Power and adrenaline courses through his veins and he’s frantic, not even sure he’s in control of his own muscles at this point. He can still spot a couple of demo-dogs in the room, snapping and bounding towards them.

“We gotta go, you fucking maniac!” she says, pointing back down towards the hallway.

Nancy stands in the middle of the hallway. With one hand, her pistol is out and pointed towards the doorway; with the other she’s reaching out towards Steve, beckoning him down. No, not him; beckoning towards Mike, who’s running down the hallway. Lucas and Will chase after him, Lucas trying to run backwards as he shoots off rocks with is slingshot. Steve glances around wildly, catching stock of Kali, Jonathan and Jane, still fighting off demo-dogs.

It’s only when he looks back down the hall that he spots Dustin. The kid is already near the staircase, half bent over himself and looking like he’s coughing up a lung. This far from him, Steve can’tfucking hear anything, but he knows it’s painful, knows that Dustin probably isn’t going to hold on much longer. Panic thuds through Steve like nothing he’s ever felt before, and he twists to start running. He grabs onto Max’s arm with one clenched fist and he practically yanks her with him, trying to get into the hallway.

His eye catches on a glint of metal sliding down near Nancy’s head, though.

The hook.

“Nancy move back!” He screeches.

Nancy glances up, screeching and hopping back. He watches, almost in slow motion, as she manages to grab onto Lucas’s jacket and yank him back with her. Startled, Lucas’s slingshot drops out of his hand. The last thing that Steve sees of either of them are them stumbling towards the floor as a heavy metal door bashes down, splintering Lucas’s slingshot into pieces. The air suddenly feels like it’s suffocating him and he blearily notices as metal sheets crash down all around the walls of the room, clicking into place on the floor.

“Steve!” Max’s frightened scream fills his ears.

Steve only has half a second to twist, his ankle groaning in complaint as something fucking pulls in his tendon.

A demo-dog snaps at the spot that his foot was just occupying.

Steve swings his bat around, lifting it up over his head, just as the demo-dog lurches forward again, this time towards Max. She ducks down and tries to get away. But as she trips backwards, she slips on the linoleum and she falls. Steve sees her land awkwardly on her should and he shifts as fast as he can, positioning himself between this once-random girl and the demo-dog. Before the thing can attack again, he brings the bat back down as a streak of red-hot anger floods through him.

He’s pissed the fuck off. 

He doesn’t know where this kind of power comes from, and later, he’ll think of his baseball coach and all the times he’s said, _could you put some fucking effort into your swings, Harrington? Hit the fucking ball like it’s offended your mother_.

Because the bat goes down - nails and spikes already dark with demo-dog blood - and smacks right into the thing’s snout. Steve hits it so hard that his body tilts forward, threatening to crash, as the strength of his swing half-hacks the demo-dogs mouth right off. Jagged threads of blood and muscle and bone hang from wound; Steve can almost see the floor through the hole.

Rather than stop though, he screams, bringing his bat back up and bashing the head in again and again and again. Steve thinks of the bear trap in his car and of crashing onto the floor under Billy’s fists and of standing in a field with bloody meat and brings his baseball bat down like a fucking hammer. His throat feels as raw as the dead monster meat underneath him. He thinks he hears Jonathan say his name, and maybe a few footsteps come towards him, but he doesn’t stop. Not until the red lights stop blaring and the only sound in the room is nails and wood on bone and brain and linoleum. It pounds through him like a drumbeat.

Fatigue breaks through his muscles and he pauses, mid-swing down. He stares down at the mess he’s made unseeingly. His brain tries to return to his body and it’s only then that his other senses slowly return to him.

The room smells like copper and antiseptic and dirty sweat and the too-sweet tang of the tunnels underneath Hawkins. Max’s soft whimper resounds in his ear. Bile fills Steve’s mouth and he twists again, before falling to his knees next to Max. She’s half sitting, holding onto her shoulder with her mouth twisted in pain, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Steve drops his bat and reaches for her, ducking his head down. There’s blood and brain matter smattered on her sneakers and the bottom of her jeans.

“Shit, oh shit, Max, shit,” Steve says.

He’s worried that he’s scared the shit out of her, or even worse, that he accidentally clipped her or got her in his rampage. Somewhere behind him, Jonathan is speaking in low, soothing tones, just the barest hint of panic cracking through. No supernatural sounds reach Steve’s ears so he scootches even closer to Max, certain that it’s just a bunch of humans in the room, now.

Even still, Steve keeps his hands hovering just above her arm, fear coursing through him as he tries not to crowd her. Yet Max looks up at him with awe instead of fear, because of course she fucking does.

Her skin splotches red, and her voice is laced with pain. “Steve that was so awesome.”

Steve drops his head back for a moment, closing his eyes. He barely registers the skin pulling in his palms as his hands clench into fists on his knees. When he opens them again he stares down at Max with tenderness and annoyance in his gaze. She’s still gripping her shoulder, knuckles tight against the joint.

“Yeah, yeah Max,” Steve says, wearily. “Don’t fucking try it at home.”

Max moves like she’s about to punch him in the side - or the throat - but a large whimper goes through her. She almost doubles over like she’s in pain. This time, Steve doesn’t hesitate to reach for her. He pulls her close to him, hands gently rubbing against her back. He can’t help but notice the streaks of blood he leaves as he does so. Something heavy pulls at his stomach and for a moment, he’s worried he’s going to vomit.

Steady footsteps reach him, and he glances up to see Kali. Her face is streaked with sweat, hair looking matted with blood and flat from where her hairspray has failed her. There’s a new rip in the knee of her jeans and the skin poking through is raw and tender and swollen.

She gently kneels beside them, only wincing slightly as her knee joint cracks. Her fingers come up to Max’s shoulder, firmly prodding around the muscles. Max lets out a hiss through her teeth and, with her good arm, swings her hand into Steve’s shirt. Her fingers claw at his stomach and bunch of the fabric.

“Max, you’ve got a dislocated shoulder,” Kali says quietly.

“Jesus fucking shit,” Max lets out.

“Hey, watch your mouth,” Steve says.

There’s no heat in her response. “Fuck you.”

Tentative sneakers walk into his field of vision and then Jane is on Max’s other side, kneeling down too. She leans in gently, pressing her side into Max. Blood drips out of her nose and her curly hair is matted down, dirt and slime all over her clothing. Jane ineffectively wipes her dirty hands on her shirt before placing her hand softly on Max’s knee.

Jonathan comes around too, a moment later, squatting. He looks so much older than he is, Steve thinks, haggard and shouldering too much of a burden. His eyes meet Steve, mouth turned down.

“Can you guys fix it?” Max asks, looking from Kali to Jane.

Jane’s eyes mist over a little. “Max -”

“You can, right, El? Just move it into place,” Max says, and almost frantically adds, “And Kali, can you make me think it doesn’t hurt?”

Kali’s voice is gentle, like it was with Joyce in the cabin. “It doesn’t work that way, Max.”

Jane looks crushed, and her hand tenses slightly on Max’s knee. “Also. Our powers...”

There’s such an awkward, stretched silence that it makes Steve pause. He looks at Jane, her face twisted into pain and sorrow; she won’t look at any of them, and only stares down at her bruised knuckles. He spares a glance at Jonathan who shakes his head softly, slowly. Steve watches his eyes drag towards the walls. Steve follows his gaze, looking at the sheets of metal that now cover the stark white tiles. There’s something slightly reflective in them, even though they look textured, almost porous. It’s even covering the fucking doorway, blocking them off completely from any kind of exit. He turns his head again and catches onto Kali’s gaze. Her face is sunken.

Shit.

“What?” Max’s voice goes high, frightened for the first time.

“Do you see the metal on the walls?” Kali asks. “There’s… something about it is blocking our powers.”

Shit.

Shit.

Fucking - shit.

“I can’t do anything,” Jane says, voice small but full of rage.

Steve tries not to let the panic crash over him and take over. His breathing comes hard but he pastes a smile onto his face. He knows it looks as fake as the toothless smile in his first-grade portrait, but he pushes through it and all of the thoughts swirling around in his head. Because he knew - Kali knew, Nancy knew, Jonathan and the shits must’ve known - that getting in was far too easy. And now, now they’re fucking trapped in this room covered with who the fuck knows what, preventing the only two people who can really end all of this without the powers they need to end it.

Shit.

“So, we’re just gonna have to pop it in the old-fashioned way,” Steve says instead of screaming, looking down at Max.

“It’s not that bad,” Jonathan says, eyes searching her face and trying to sound soothing.

“Yes it is,” Max shoots back. “Billy dislocated my shoulder, once, when we were still in California, I know how bad it is.”

It takes everything in Steve not to tense his body. Because, if there’s one thing he’s learned this entire fucking year it’s that when it comes to some fucking people, violence is the fucking answer. But he has Max in his arms right now and he wants to make sure that she’s not hurt anymore, not today and not ever. So it also takes everything in his body, all of his muscles and bone not to haul off and punch the floor. Logically he knows it wouldn’t hurt Billy; instead, all it would do would hurt him. Except he feels that it would at least soothe the wave of anger, maybe. 

His eyes meet Jonathan’s and there’s a grim, dark look across his face. There’s an unspoken promise between them. When - if, his brain supplies, if, Harrington - they get back to Hawinks, the two of them are going to beat the shit out of Billy. And Steve - Steve always believed in fair fights, all right, one on fucking one. But a bigger part of his brain doesn’t care about fair right now. He knows all of his fear and panic and anger are bleeding together and he’s mixing situations up but right now? Beating the crap out of Billy is one thing he knows he can do.

Or.

You know.

Him and Byers can sure as shit try.

“Then you know that the sooner we do it, the better it’ll be,” Kali says.

Max looks up at her, squaring her good shoulder. “Do it.”

Steve moves slightly so that Kali can get into a better position. Max’s hand on his chest clenches, and he feels her short, ragged nails go right into his skin. Jane shifts too, biting on her lip. Kali grabs onto Max’s arm with one hand, and grips her shoulder with the other. Max squeezes her eyes shut.

Kali focuses only on Max, hands relaxing and then tightening as she pops the arm bone back into the socket.

Max lets out one high, tight scream of pain, and then her teeth clamp down on her bottom lip. She looks at Steve with tears in her eyes, skin turning pink and red. Steve places his hand on top of hers on his chest and nods encouragingly at her. Kali prods the shoulder gently and then leans back, looking satisfied.

“Great job, shithead,” he says, voice only trembling slightly.

“Thanks, dickface,” Max says.

“Here,” Jonathan says.

Steve pulls aways from Max as Jonathan moves in. He’s taken off his jacket and sweater, twisting and knotting his sweater into some kind of sling. Jane helps him put it over Max and adjust it so that her arm fits snuggly into it. Steve wants to ask Jonathan where he learned that, but bites back the question. He idly thinks that Jonathan and Nancy were much, much more prepared for all this shit than he is. It’s like they took a crash course on practical skills to learn in case the apocalypse has come. Steve raises his eyebrows slightly to himself, and he half wants to laugh. Cause that’s exactly what’s happening, isn’t it?

Max looks up. “Do you think everyone else is okay?”

The image of Dustin curled up flashes through Steve’s mind, and he doesn’t answer. No one else says anything either, and Max just blows out some air.

“Right,” she says, “right.”

An intense look flows over her face, and Max pushes herself up on her good arm. Jane almost crashes backwards, surprised. Steve furrows his brow at the girl, who just looks back at him like he’s stupid. Max cocks one hip, taking a few deep breaths before speaking. The tone that comes out is rude and capable and sounds every ounce like the complaining, badass girl that Steve had first met in an abandoned lot.

“Jonathan, do you have your walkie-talkie in your bag?” she asks. “We should make contact with everyone else first and then try to figure out a way out of this room.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jonathan says, shifting to his feet, and then moving to dig through his book bag.

“Okay, cool,” Max says, nod resolutely. “And - just because we don’t have El’s magic powers or whatever doesn’t mean we’re powerless. There has to be a way out of here.”

Jane stares at her for a minute, and then nods back. “Yes.”

 

+++

 

There doesn’t seem to be a way out.

Jonathan shifts around the room with the walkie-talkie, trying to find some kind of reception. Max and Jane explore the perimeters of the room, peeking at the walls and floor and trying to find some kind of trap door or way out. Kali calls out for them not to get too close to the walls, and Steve figures out why as he approaches them more carefully. A low, buzzing sound emits from the metal, like an electric field. Steve takes a deep breath and steps away from the strange material keeping them all trapped. He circles around the equipment in the room, looking for - he doesn’t even know what.

The only thing of interest he finds is a small mini-fridge near the back of the room, tucked away with a small coffee maker on top of it. All the wires seem to be running towards a freestanding generator in a corner that still seems to be working. There’s bottles of water, beer and a few sandwich meats and bread in the fridge. So he figures, as long as they’re not down here too long, at least they won’t starve to death.

He doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not that he’s thinking so long-term. But after that initial alarm, nothing else has gone off. No more demo-dogs have spilled in, looking for a kill, and no Lab grunts have come in, either. Nancy must’ve accidentally tripped a panic switch, or something, he thinks, when she was looking for a light. Something to destroy and keep out unwanted visitors. That’s what the security was, he reasons. It makes anger burn in his chest that these fucking people would use demo-dogs as attack dogs.  

He walks past Max asking Jane if she thinks they could dig their way out, through the linoleum. But after they manage to crack a square using Jonathan’s crowbar, they reveal that the porous metal runs underneath the tiles. He tries to block out their disappointed sighs as he goes up to Kali. It takes him longer than it should to cross the room, just so he can sidestep dead demo-dogs and pools of guts and blood. It reeks. Everyone has bandanas tied around their noses and mouths to try and mask the smell, but Steve doesn't think it’s working very well.

Kali’s been working at the computers, pressing on different buttons and staring at the screens. She doesn’t even spare him a glance when he stands behind her, leaning over her shoulder. She sits in one of the chair, looking hard at a particular screen. It’s fuzzy but seems to have a photo of someone on it, a red stamp going right through the image. Behind the stamp is the face of scared woman, with short, shaved hair and wide eyes. It takes Steve a few moments to realize that the stamp reads _FAILURE_. Next to the image is a short description; Steve just catches a glimpse of _Test Subject 001_ before he feels his stomach flip.

He gently grabs a chair and wheels it closer to her. Their knees brush, but she still doesn’t look at him. She clicks through the computer, and images flash on the screen. He clenches his teeth when he sees Kali’s photo flit past the screen. She looks much younger and not at all as punk as she does now. Her hair is dark and braided; her eyes are murderous and flat. _Test Subject 008_. Without thinking he reaches out for her. His fingers sweep slowly along the 008 on her arm, and he feels like an asshole, thinking back to when they first met. What had he said to her? _Is that supposed to mean something to me, or what?_

Kali slides her arm down. But instead of pulling away like Steve thinks, it’s just to grip his hand in hers tightly. He doesn’t want to think about his blood, soaking through the bandages. His blood, that’s literally on her hands, now.

“We’re all here,” Kali says, still looking at her image on the screen. “All twenty five of us.”

His breath hitches. “Twenty five?”

She nods. “Fifteen originally. And it looks like Brenner’s only added to his collection.”

“Kali...”

She snorts, dark and bitter. “Now we know how he opened the gate, at least. More tests, more experiments. As to how he got those demo-dogs all locked up, though...”

She glances down and away from him, pain evident in her voice. His throat tightens as he sees the tears spilling down, over her cheeks. Her jaw clenches and he knows that yes, she’s sad, but more than that, she’s angry. Her body trembles slightly, and there’s nothing he can fucking do. Nothing except slip his hand out from hers and put his arm around her shoulders. He pulls her close to him, kissing the top of her head. Her hair tastes nasty as hell, but he doesn't shift away. Her hands are fists in her lap, veins peeking through with the intensity of her grip.

“I’m going to find them and get them out,” she says, words so soft they’re barely a whisper. “Then I’m going to put a bullet between his eyes.”

Steve doesn’t ask who he is, because he already fucking knows.

“Are all of them…” he winces, not knowing how to be tactful, not know if it’s gonna fucking matter. “Uhm…”

“No,” she says. “Me and Jane and sixteen and twenty two,” Kali says. “For now.”

"For now?"

Kali glances up at him. "For now, if we can't stop him."

“Kali,” Jonathan’s voice startles Steve.

Kali pulls away from Steve, glancing up and back towards Jonathan. Steve turns as well, watching as Jonathan gestures towards the screen. He has his camera in his hands, the exact same one that Steve and Nancy had given him for Christmas last year. Just past him, Jane and Max have the walkie-talkie in their hands, looking extremely frustrated with it. Jonathan clears his throat.

“We could have proof,” Jonathan’s voice is soft. “And even if we can’t share… all of it… it can be spun...”

It takes Steve a moment that Jonathan’s asking Kali permission to take photos of the screen, to document what’s happened to dozens of people and to share it with the world. Steve finds himself going completely still, watching the host of emotions run over Kali’s face as she stares up at Jonathan. To his credit, Jonathan doesn’t even twitch or blink out of discomfort. He just waits patiently for an answer.

“There’s surprisingly little security on this thing,” Kali says finally.

Jonathan grins and it’s sharp and unlike anything Steve’s seen on his face before. “All the better, because I have three rolls of film on me.”

 

+++

 

Steve circles around Kali as she presses her palm against the glass tank. He stands at her back, aching to put his hands on her again. But he keeps them to himself, just standing near her. He looks at her reflection, staring back at him. Her reflected eyes scan over his face, eyebrows dipping down slightly. Through the tank, he can see a yellow ladder leaning against its other side, leading up to the basin on top.

Kali turns, dropping her hand and leaning against the tank. She lifts her chin up, but her dark eyes don’t meet his now. He thinks she’s staring at something just past his head; or maybe it’s at his hair, which, he knows, must be doing some crazy shit right now.

A small, stupid part of him pops up in his brain. He has to resist the urge to lean one arm against the tank and crowd into her space and ask something asinine, like _come here often, beautiful?_ Because he might have done that, he thinks, if they had met in the crowded hallways of Hawkins high. He can almost see it: her, scowling against her lockers with an interested, defiant gaze. Him, just trying to impress her in anyway possible.

“I’m worried that no one has come for us yet,” Kali tells him softly.

His mind snaps back to attention.

“Yeah,” he says.

Kali pauses. “Because either someone knows we’re down here and thinks we’re all dead, leaving clean up for morning. Or no one knows we’re down here yet, and we’ll have a lot to fucking face when daylight comes.”

“We’ll handle it,” Steve says.

The tone in his voice is sure, and he probes his feelings deeper. It surprises him, to know that he’s not lying, not right now. Kali nods, something sturdy that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She sighs, and neither of them says anything for a beat.

“Steve…” she meets his eyes now. “Should we talk about how you decimated that demo-dog?”

He’s not sure what she’s getting at. “Jane pulled one apart with her mind powers.”

“Yeah,” Kali says. “But that’s Jane. And you’re you.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

"It means that Jane left the body alone when she was done," Kali says.

A rash spreads through Steve's chest, and he's not sure what to say. Because he has no answer for why he kept bashing the thing's head in, not really. It was just like - all the aggression that was building instead of him just fucking burst, like a damn. And yeah, afterwards, he was scared he had frightened Max. But now a coil tightens in his stomach as he thinks of being so fucking brutish that it worried - concerned?  whatever - Kali.  

"I just got caught up," he says finally, lamely. 

“That wasn't getting caught up, that was getting lost." Kali says. "And Steve? Don't lose yourself, doing all of this."

She gestures around the room and for a moment, he can't even breathe. Kali stares at him too carefully, like she’s peering right at his fucking soul. She leans in closer to him, placing a hand on his torso. It’s firm and comforting, warm and tender. His muscles flex underneath her fingers. But his mouth is dry, suddenly, because he’s not exactly sure what she’s talking about, what she means.

Lose himself?

There’s nothing - fuck.

Fuck.

He doesn’t even know what to feel, about this.

“When Jane - ” she stops, takes a breath. “When Jane left me, in Chicago, I had to confront a lot of things in myself. I’m still doing that. But it also made me realize a lot of things. That in my hunt I didn’t want to lose myself to these men. Brenner… Brenner already took so much of me. He doesn’t deserve what’s left.”

“Kali -”

“Anger is powerful, Steve. The passion that you put into your bat, defending the people you love...” Kali smirks, just a little, he can tell by her eyes. “It’s beautiful. But what you did, tonight? It was beyond that. Beyond bashing in a crappy van or playing keep-away with Hopper.”

He doesn’t say anything, just stares at her.

“Don’t let them take any more from you than they already have, is all I’m saying,” Kali says finally.

He dips his head a little bit more as she just look at him, walls down and heart tired. He catches her eyes once more, hers dark and depthless and so fucking beautiful it hurts his heart. Her words spin around in his mind and he feels the phantom weight of his bat underneath his fingers. The utter blind rage and emptiness of bashing in the demo-dogs head, again and again. Fora brief moment, shame passes through him. And even though it’s totally different - the thing he killed was a monster, after all - he wonders if that’s how Billy felt, pummeling him in the Byers’s house. As if he had nothing else instead of him but pure violence and needed somewhere to put it.

Because he knows Kali’s right. When he was hitting the demo-dog, it wasn’t like the other times. He wasn’t doing it to protect anyone, he wasn't doing it for any reason. He was doing it because he was angry and bitter and needed for something else to feel small, to feel powerless underneath him. And it scares the shit out of him, recognizing that.

He whispers, “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

“Hey,” she says.

Kali looks at him and tugs her bandana down onto her neck. She brings her hand up to his face, cupping his cheek and pushing his bandana down too. When she pulls his head closer to hers, Steve goes willingly, feeling himself soften underneath her rough palm. Something in her eyes shift, and then she closes them, pressing her lips into his. Steve closes his eyes too and kisses her back, slowly and softly.

It’s nothing like the kiss on the roof. This is like moving through honey; it’s tender and loving. Her hand flexes on his side as he brings his arms around her, pulling her even tighter towards him.

He tries, oh how he fucking tries, not to read too much into this kiss. But when her tongue swipes against his lips, he thinks he can feel all the words she’s not saying out loud. That Steve’s a protector, and that’s what his hands are good for. That he’s outlandish and cocky and brash and a rude fuck, but underneath it all he’s soft and he’s caring. And that she likes him this way, and he should like him that way, too.

Or you know.

Maybe he’s just reading all of that into it.

She pulls her lips away slightly and he feels her next words more than he hears them.

“There’s a lot of Steves out there,” she says. “But they’re nothing compared to you.”

His arms tighten around her, because.

Shit.

Maybe he’s not reading anything into it.

“You too, you know,” he says.

Kali’s eyes flicker. “Me too, what?”

“I - you’re right,” Steve says. “They don’t deserve the rest of you.”

“No,” Kali says. “No they don’t.”

“And I - shit. Kali, I just, I want you to know... I’m by your side no matter what happens,” he swallows. “You know. When you rein holy hell down on them.”

The corner of her mouth twitches and turns up. “Right.”

The look in her eyes smolders and he feels her gaze all the way to his feet. He’s about to kiss her again when a movement above him catches his attention. Steve looks up, his arms tightening around Kali again, but not in tenderness this time. He’s prepared to turn them and push her out of the way before whatever the fuck that is can get to them -

“Are you guys making out? At a time like this?” Max sounds disgusted.

Kali looks up too, and Steve almost huffs a laugh of relief.

He can't believe he's been caught kissing Kali twice already by these little shitheads. 

Peeking out from on top of the water tank are Max and Jane, twin looks of discomfort on their faces. Max’s red hair hangs down like a curtain and one of Jane’s hands are curled over the side of the tank. As soon as it comes, Steve’s laugh turns to dread as he realizes how high up the two little shits are. Kali seems to have the same thought as him, because they jerk away at the same time, glaring up at the girls.

“You shithead, you wanna break your neck the same day you dislocate your shoulder?” Steve calls up, heart racing.

“Jane! Max!” Kali glares up at them.

Jonathan appears next to them, face blanching slightly, camera still in hand. “Guys, what the fuck!”

Jane and Max look down at them, almost bored looks crossing their faces. Max exaggeratedly rolls her eyes and Jane disappears from view. Kali starts, about to head around the tank, and presumably towards the ladder. But then Jane appears once more, maneuvering around until she’s sitting on top of the basin. Her legs hang down off the side, and she has the walkie-talkie up to her ear. Even from his spot on the ground, Steve can hear the static hissing over the line.

“There’s better reception up here,” Max says snottily.

“I swear to fucking God -” Steve starts.

“Steve? Is… you?” Lucas’s voice crackles over the line of the walkie-talkie.

Steve almost falls over in surprise as Max whoops for joy. Jonathan slumps where he stands, relief coloring his face. Jane stares down at Steve smugly, and Kali rubs at her forehead with one hand. Voices weave in and out from the walkie-talkie in short, spotty bursts. 

“Lucas! Lucas!” Relief threads through Max’s voice.

“It’s us,” Jane says, gripping the walkie-talkie tightly. “Me, Steve, Kali, Jonathan and Max. We’re alive.”

“Shit... good,” Will says over the line.

“El!” Mike’s voice crackles over.

“Mike,” Jane says, sounding close to tears.

Max shoots her a comforting look and reaches for the walkie-talkie. “Are you guys okay? Can you hear us?”

“Not… kind of,” Lucas’s voice confirms. “Dustin...”

Steve’s heart jumps to his throat and he’s sure he’s going to vomit where he stands.

Max worries her lip. “Dustin?”

“Saved… demo-dogs… totally... ” Mike’s voice says.

“What the fuck, what the fuck,” Steve whispers.

“Awesome!” Dustin’s voice crackles over the line, weakly but there.

Steve lets out a shaky breath.

“Negative… fire… working,” Nancy adds.

“We can only hear every other word,” Max shouts into the walkie-talkie, looking frustrated.

“Worry… it out… do...” Nancy continues.

“What’s happening?” Jane asks.

“Led... gate... Will… find you,” Lucas is saying.

“Stay there!” Will’s voice comes in, strong and clear.

“We can’t leave, dipshit,” Max shoots back.

But then the line cuts out, and the five of them stay still, looking expectantly at the walkie-talkie, as if Will is gonna magically pop out of it and find a way to get them out. When - fucking obviously - nothing happens, Jane slumps slightly and Max sighs.

“Will you two assholes get down from there already?” Steve says, glaring up at Max and Jane.

Jane’s spine straightens and her eyes narrow as she stares down at Steve. He’s suddenly very happy that she doesn’t have her powers at the moment, because the say if looks could kill would be really fucking literal in this situation. It dawns on him that this might be the first time he's ever really addressed Jane. Belatedly he wonders if he should've gone for her name instead of cursing at her. Beside him, Kali snorts gently. Max glances between Steve and Jane, confused for a moment, before understanding dawns on her face.

“He doesn’t mean that it in a negative way, it’s just like, a term of endearment,” Max says.

Jane frowns. “Term of endearment?”

Max nods. “Yeah, you know. It means something that you call someone out of love. Like, haven’t you noticed what he calls the rest of us, like, all the time? Shithead, numbnuts, jackass -”

Steve winces as Max continues down the list, and interrupts. “Alright, I think she gets the point -”

“It’s his way of showing he loves us,” Max finishes. “He’s a good brother.”

“Oh,” Jane peers down at him, not looking very convinced.

Steve will take what he can get.

Jonathan clears his throat, sounding like he’s trying not to laugh. “Kali, Steve - come over here, there’s some files I want to show you, I guess while we wait. You too, Jane, Max. Maybe we should all see this.”

 

+++

 

Jonathan sits in the middle, in complete control of the computer terminal. Jane and Max squeeze into one of the chairs together on his right, and Kali sits in another chair on his left. Steve leans against the back of Jonathan’s seat, trying to peer at the screen.

“Kali was right when she said these were so easy to access,” Jonathan says. “Everything was left logged on and open with very few passwords. I’m nowhere near as good at computers as Bob was, but this was basically child’s play.”

“Obviously they thought the demo-dogs were security enough,” Steve mutters.

Jonathan continues. “This station I think belongs to someone really high up, possibly at the same level as Brenner, so there’s lots of information on it - data on experiments done, progress reports, even some kind of internal electronic messaging system among employees.”

“Electronic messages? Cool!” Max catches the glimpse on Steve’s face and adds, “You know, it would be cool. If they weren’t evil.”

Steve rolls his eyes. 

“Yeah, anyway, I found a bunch of direct messages to Brenner about a ton of horrible shit,” Jonathan says, clicking around on the screen. “And look at this one. It’s about the Upside Down.”

_Test Subject 023 was successful in opening a new portal in Testing Room 12C. We used a sensory deprivation tank as requested (re: Test Subject 011). Test Subject 023 unfortunately did not survive; autopsy reports high strain on the heart to be cause of death. Portal is being closely monitored for activity._

“And then there’s this one,” Jonathan says, clicking to a new message.

_Efforts to control vine growth and movement proceeding slowly as they seem to have grown somewhat resistant to fire. Efforts to control and tame portal creatures also going slowly, though they react positively to electroshock therapies. Portal creatures are able to move between dimensions without going through the main portal; will investigate this phenomenon more._

“It looks like Brenner intentionally reopened the gate,” Jonathan says.

Steve swears. “Shit.”

Max curls her lip in disgust. “But why?”

Kali stares at the screen. “The Hawkins Lab was obsessed with using our powers in order to spy on the Russians. He must be trying to… manipulate the things from the Upside Down for his own uses.”

Steve glances behind him, at the demo-dog corpses. “Yeah, and they’re fucking succeeding.”

“They want to control it,” Jane shakes her head. “But they will never control it.”

“We have to close the gate, and fast,” Max nods.

“Yeah,” Steve mutters, “especially if the vines are becoming resistant to fire.”

“There’s one more message you should see,” Jonathan says.

_Investigations on the portal creatures (re: trans-dimensional travel) are still unclear. However, a breakthrough has been made. It appears that the creatures can only do so near or around bodies of water. Traveling between dimensions seems to create “pockets” which bring odd spores in our world that grow and create vines. Upon observation, we believe that the newly vined tunnels running around Lake Michigan must be the result of the creatures moving between dimensions. Oddly enough, none of the creatures seem to like water, even though it is necessary for travel._

They all sit in silence for a moment. Jonathan clicks onto another message.

_Further observations show that the creatures can carry objects with them to the other dimension when using these “pockets.” We are hoping by end of week to investigate whether or not the creatures can also transport other living beings with them through “these pockets.” Our first test on Test Subject 019 was unsuccessful, as the creatures killed the Test Subject before testing could commence._

Jonathan speaks first. “They’re trying to take people into the Upside Down.”

“And they’re using fucking demo-dogs to do it,” Steve mutters, his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

“What the shit,” Max says softly. “What the shit.”

Jonathan’s mouth is turned into a grim line. “If this operation has only been happening a few weeks, they might not even know what a full sized demogorgon looks like, or what the Mind Flayers are -”

“And even if they do, they’re just going to try to use them,” Kali’s voice is hard. “That’s what they do. It’s all about -”

A bright spark flashes throughout the room, surprising Steve so much he stumbles backwards. He shields his face slightly but then glances up as the sound of fists pounding on glass fills his ears. Steve’s mouth drops open at the sight before him: Dustin, Will, and a fucking demo-dog floating inside the tank. Both kids are pounding their hands against the inside of the tank, bubbles popping out of their mouths as they scream. The demo-dog is snapping at the glass, teeth gnashing and sliding against the slick pane.

“Holy fucking shit!”

Jonathan’s yell breaks him - and everyone else - out of their shocked dazes.

“We gotta break this thing open, hurry!” Max screams.

Steve twists and runs for his bat, lying a few feet away from him. Jonathan is right on his heels, sliding in blood as he tries to get to his crowbar near the far wall. Behind him, Steve hears Jane and Max screaming and beating on the glass with their fists. Steve’s fingers graze the wood and he’s up and running again, full speed towards the tank. He spots Kali running around the tank, fingers pressing into the random edges around the damn thing, maybe looking for a fucking door or switch or something.

Steve twirls his bat and he knows - somewhere in the recesses of his mind, the part that’s not fucking terrified of Will and Dustin drowning - he looks too fucking cool right now. His fingers clench and he’s about to swing at the glass, when Kali yanks open a small panel. Her palm smacks right into it, panic written all over her face.

A soft beeping noise emits from the tank. The floor inside the tank shifts, and what looks like a fucking drain appears. Dustin and Will are still too busy pounding on the glass, gasping down water to notice, but everyone outside of the tank pauses. Steve glances up and almost drops his bat in relief as the water goes down rapidly. He almost collapses where he stands, and hears Jonathan’s relieved sob somewhere near him.

Max slaps her hand against the glass, almost pressing her entire body into it. “Thank God.”

Will notices the water going down first, looking upward. He stops struggling almost immediately, and tugs on Dustin’s jacket. Dustin thrashes around a bit more, before he seems to focus on what’s happening around him. The demo-dog continues to try to bite through the glass until Dustin turns to it. Steve watches as the two make eye contact, Dustin reaching out to wag his finger at the thing.

Everything in Steve screams to bash the glass open anyway and yank Will and Dustin away from that thing, but then something fucking weird happens.

The demo-dog goes still, almost as if it’s in a trance. Steve’s jaw drops open as it hangs in the rapidly draining water. As soon as its feet - paws? Whatever the fuck - touch the bottom of the tank, it sits down. As if it were a real fucking house pet or some shit. Will and Dustin take shuddering breaths, leaning on one another and the glass to stand up right. Will coughs up a bit of water, spitting it right on the glass.

When the last bit of water is drained, the beeping stops. A soft whoosh emits, and then one of the panels in the glass pops open. Dustin and Will stumble out of it, almost tripping over their own feet. Kali and Jonathan are right there though, to catch them both. Kali grabs onto Dustin quickly and yanks him away from the tank and the demo-dog, which is still sitting calmly inside. Jonathan practically hauls Will onto his shoulder and slides away, gripping him tightly.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Steve sees Max and Jane make a running start towards the boys. He reaches out and manages to grab them by the scruffs of the jackets, though, pulling them back. Jane makes an offended noise and glares at him; Max whimpers slightly, and Steve tugs at her more gently, remembering her shoulder. Once they’ve moved back, Steve steps in front of them slightly, eyeing Dustin, Will, and the demo-dog warily.

“Well this is a shitty welcome for the people who came to save you,” Dustin rasps.

“Jonathan, Jonathan, let me down,” Will grumbles.

Dustin adds, “You’re welcome, by the way.”

Steve just gapes as them, too many questions pushing their way onto his lips to be able to voice any of them. Jane pushes at him slightly, peeking around his shoulder to look at Dustin and Will. He notices that she doesn’t stray any further from him, and he counts that as a win.

Kind of.

“How are you here?” she asks incredulously.

“We traveled through the Upside Down,” Dustin says.

 

 +++

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading! Leave me a note and let me know what you're thinking. Only two more chapters left to this epic, and I can't wait to share them with you!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey luvs!
> 
> Your comments are killing me! I can't believe that on that last chapter I got a "holy shit," a "holy fuck," and a "holy fucking shit" which is like. Life goals, to be honest? I'm as messed up over what happened as you! 
> 
> Here's the latest! It's super long and super action-packed so I hope you're all ready (meaning: start reading this on your phone as soon as you get into bed and not at 3am! ;) )
> 
> I'm so excited to share this with you. Hope you enjoy!

+++

 

“What the fuck do you mean, you traveled through the Upside Down?” Jonathan half-yells.

“Actually, don’t put me down, there’s gross stuff all over the floor,” Will says, frowning in Jonathan’s arms.

Dustin edges closer to Kali as he inspects the ground. “It’s disgusting in here, what did you do?”

Jane actually pushes past Steve this time, stomping over to Dustin. She points her finger right in his face. Steve’s about to pull her back, when he notices the look on Kali’s face. She’s partially between Dustin and Jane, her lips pursed. Jane looks like she’s about to start screaming, but then her head tilts up slightly. Kali raises an eyebrow and then Jane huffs. She steps halfway back and crosses her arms over her chest.

Max doesn’t seem to notice - or maybe she doesn’t fucking care - about this interaction.

“We were in here trying not to get eaten by your new pet’s brothers!” Max shouts from behind Steve.

“Hey -”

“God! Dart wasn’t enough, now you’re like - like -” Max suddenly goes very still and quiet.

“Why the fuck are you with a demo-dog?” Steve voices the rest of her thoughts. “And how the fuck did you get it to just - just sit there? The fuck?”

Dustin shoots them a smug look that’s absolutely ruined as he starts coughing. Kali has to grip onto his shoulders to keep him from falling over as the spasms go through his body. He coughs so hard Steve is sure that his throat must be bloody and raw. Water sprays all over the floor and onto Kali, like when a puppy shakes himself off after a bath. Out of the corner of his eyes, Steve sees the demo-dog flinch slightly. Its jaw opens like it’s about to snap again, muscles in its legs tensing. As soon as Dustin stops coughing, it relaxes again, leaning back on its haunches.

This is...

Steve’s seen a lot of strange shit the past year, alright? Hell, even in the past few days, he’s seen shit that he never could have dreamed up.

But this?

This is literally the fucking most bizarre thing he’s ever seen.

Ever.

“He’s not an it!” Dustin glares. “And his name is Dantès -”

Steve rolls his eyes so hard he’s worried he’s gonna sprain an ocular muscle. “For the love of -”

“Like _The Count of Monte Cristo_ ,” Dustin finishes.

“Dustin!” Jane seethes at him.

“Okay, okay,” Dustin rolls his eyes. “Look - we don’t have a lot of time to explain now - we gotta get back to the gate.”

Max screws her eyes up. “And how exactly are we supposed to do that?”

Will pipes in. “By going back through the Upside Down.”

The _duh obviously_ is only implied in his tone, and Steve has to stop himself from throwing his hands up in the air with abandon. He feels his eyebrows raise so high they must be in his hairline by now. He puts his hands on his hips, staring down at Will and Dustin like they’re fucking nuts. Because in this moment, they fucking are.

Jonathan slowly puts Will down, and then bends down to get on his eye level. He places his hands on Will’s shoulders, and even from where he stands, Steve sees the concerned, frightened look in Jonathan’s eyes. His fingers clench on the boy’s shoulders.

“Will,” Jonathan’s soft voice carries. “Will, is this you? Or is this...”

“The spy?” Will shakes his head. “Jonathan I swear. It’s me. This is all me.”

“And I promise I’m me, too,” Dustin says. “Not a raging zombie yet, as you can see.”

Steve’s eyes slide to the docile demo-dog and something twists in his stomach. Jonathan’s gaze doesn’t even leave his brother’s face. It’s like he’s scanning over each pore, looking for something to indicate that Will either can’t be trusted or that he’s telling the truth. The front of his shirt and his pants are wet from where he had been carrying Will around. A puddle drips underneath Will, his clothes and hair soaked.

“Jonathan, I promise, I promise,” Will stresses. “What can I say for you to believe me?”

“I...” Jonathan’s voice falters.

Will’s only gets stronger. “Do you remember… do you remember the time that we were both home with the flu, but Da - Lonnie was the one who was supposed to stay home and watch us? He took us to the liquor store instead, telling us to stay in the car. But I kept having to hang out of the window to throw up, because I was so sick.”

“I remember,” Jonathan says. “He was inside for what felt like hours, doing who knows what.”

“Yeah,” Will says. “And he had left the keys in the car. So finally you climbed into the front seat and told me to put my seatbelt on, that you were gonna take me home. You were only twelve. But you did it, you drove me all the way home and left him there.”

“I only just clipped the garbage cans when we got home,” Jonathan smiles slightly.

“Yah. And the entire ride, you stopped whenever I said I was gonna puke. I was so scared, but the entire time you just said to trust you, that we were gonna make it home, regardless of how long it took or how hard it was.” Will takes a shuddering breath. “That’s what I’m telling you now. Jonathan. Trust me.“

Kali catches Steve’s eyes and they stare at each other for a moment. Kali nods, something small. Steve nods back at her and then turns his head to look back at Jonathan and Will, both of them still quiet and just looking at each other. In front of him, Jane shifts slightly, her head cocking. Even Max and Dustin stay quiet.

Finally, Jonathan clutches Will to him, hugging him fiercely.

“That decides that, then,” Kali says, nodding.

“Okay, okay, cool, cool,” Steve says. “So. The Upside Down.”

“I’ll explain everything once we get outta this room,” Dustin promises.

Max shrinks into Steve just a little more. “Just make sure you keep that demo-dog away from me.”

“Me too,” Jane says wearily.

Dustin’s eyes crinkle. “No problemo, ladies.”

Kali rolls her eyes. “All right, what do we have to do?”

Will turns out of Jonathan’s grasp, and nods back at the water tank. “That.”

“Oh, no, no,” Steve starts shaking his head. “You shitheads, none of us are getting in that thing, with that thing -”

“Buckle up, Steve, we’re going for a ride to another dimension!” Dustin says gleefully at him.

Steve mutters, “you sure you’re not some demo-zombie?”

“That hurts, it really does, dickhead,” Dustin shoots back.

Kali steps between them, then, towards the water tank. She looks up at it, inspecting all of the buttons on it. Steve wants to yank her back and away from the demo-dog, but it doesn’t even seem to register that she’s standing there. It simply waits, cocking its head at Dustin like it’s waiting for an order.

“You need water, right?” Kali asks, glancing back towards Will.

He nods, looking a little surprised. “Yeah. The demogorgons can move back and forth using water -”

“Yeah, yeah, we know that, kid,” Steve says.

“How?”

Jonathan smiles grimly. “We’ve been doing some of our own research, too.”

“It looks like there’s a timer on this,” Kali says. “We can set it and then all climb inside.”

Something inside of Steve is howling at him to try and stop this entire, stupid plan before it happens. Because seriously, what the shit? They’re all gonna intentionally go into the Upside Down? With a demo-dog and inches-away-from-zombification Dustin and Will? Will, who was once a spy for the very Mind Flayers they’re trying to destroy? But before the words of protest can leave his mouth, he clamps down on his tongue and stays silent. It might seem like a shitty-ass plan, but at this point, it’s the only one they have. And if worse comes to worse - Dustin and Will are actually betraying them and leading them to certain doom - well. One of two things could happen. Kali and Jane could break away and destroy the Elder Brain and escape, or they could all be killed in the Upside Down.

Either way, Steve imagines he’ll be dead, but hey. At least he won’t have to witness the apocalypse.

Max looks upward, like she’s petitioning the heavens. “Shit.”

 

+++

 

To say it’s a tight fit inside the tank would be an under-exaggeration.

Dustin crouches next to the demo-dog in the center, with his hand placed on its shoulder blades. Everyone else stands pressed against the glass in a circle, seemingly to get as far from the demo-dog as possible. They all have bandanas tied around their mouths and goggles over their eyes. Each of them is holding onto a small piece of someone else.

Will holds Dustin’s free hand while Jonathan grips Will’s other hand tightly. Jonathan holds Max’s good hand with his other one, and he wears his backpack over his chest and stomach, a sort of barrier against the demo-dog. Jane’s arm is carefully looped through Max’s sling. She holds Kali’s hand with her free one. Steve stands next to Kali, holding hands and fingers laced together. His other arm is around Will’s shoulders, fingers clutching slightly into his jacket. His baseball bat is back inside his bag, and he feels very, very exposed, just a few inches between him and something that can rip out his liver with one bite.

Jonathan stands with his back pressed to the glass door, having slammed it shut behind him. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of handles or release buttons inside the tank, and it’s making Steve want to panic in the enclosed space. But he just tries to smile encouragingly at Max instead of screaming and banging on the glass to just let him the fuck out. Already, the glass begins to fog over slightly, with the heat of their bodies and their breathing in the small space.

“You got a hold of that thing?” Steve asks Dustin.

Dustin glances over his shoulder, and then makes his weird as fuck purring noise. Both Jane and Max grimace, disturbed looks flying over their faces. Steve feels his own face curl up uncomfortably and Jonathan rolls his eyes. Kali’s face morphs into something of sheer confusion, like she’s never heard any human make a noise like that before.

“All under control, buddy,” Dustin wriggles his eyebrows.

“Stop doing that,” Will looks like he’s smelled something rotten.

There’s a soft clicking noise somewhere near Jonathan, and then a soft shower begins to rain down on them. Steve glances up, rapidly blinking as he watches the nozzle to the basin release slick water. It feels thicker than what comes out of his faucet at home. After a few moments, he has to glance down and away; the water comes quicker now, almost too heavy for him to see through, even with the goggles on. His hair plasters down onto his forehead and the back of his neck and it itches, just a little bit. His clothes become immediately drenched, and Kali’s fingers tighten around his own.

The water doesn’t feel pure or clean or any of that bullshit that movies always say that downpours are supposed to symbolize. Instead it feels like it’s weighing him down, making it so that he really can’t breathe that well. Furthermore, as the water washes over them, it dislodges brain chunks, demo-slime, and blood from their clothes and bodies. There’s nowhere for the runoff to go, so it begins to pool around them. The water they stand in tints light pink and becomes redder as it fills up the tank.

It’s up to his knees before anyone speaks.

“Any time now,” Will says.

Dustin keeps his head bowed towards the demo-dog, fingers clenching into its shoulder blades. The demo-dog opens its mouth and lets out the most dreadful groan Steve has ever heard. It shakes him to his core and he’s about to open his mouth to let out a shuddering breath when everything feels too - he can’t describe it, not really - too wet, too mossy. The inside of his throat feels coated in the stuff, and he shifts. Or - he tries to. Because now, there’s something knotting around his feet, keeping him in place, and climbing up his legs.

He can barely feel Kali’s hand around his or Will’s shoulders underneath his arm. All he can think about is the growing panic in his body as everything darkens around him. The water sludges down his head and in the space between his jacket and his skin, rolling down and covering every inch of his body. He tries to shut his mouth against the disgusting taste creeping in, but he can’t. It soaks deep into his skin, up his nostrils and over his taste buds and it's that smell, again, that horrible, flowery, sticky-sweet nastiness.

His body jerks and he tries to struggle in earnest, but he can’t seem to do anything but gasp for air. The only thing he thinks about now is that it was all a fucking lie, they shouldn’t have climbed into the tank, he’s going to die, here, in the Upside Down -

Wait.

He doesn’t even realize his eyes are closed until he’s stumbling backwards, glass no longer at his back. They fly open and his body practically rips away from Kali and Will as he goes down the base of the tank and into the Upside Down laboratory room. He gasps, momentarily grateful for the bandana around his mouth and nose.

Everything is dark and mostly covered in this - this weird hazy fog, with spots of bright spores flying around the air lazily. It’s colder than he would have imagined - given how the tunnels felt like being back the Florida everglades, thanks Dad for that memorable family vacation - and he tries not to shiver in his wet clothes. Even though he knows it’s his own hair dripping down his neck, he wants to retch slightly, scared that something is crawling over his skin. Everything still smells sticky-sweet, and that doesn’t help either. He breathes through his mouth instead of his nose, but the taste of raw sewage and his own sweat coats his teeth and tongue.

He turns in a circle slightly, once he catches a glimpse that everyone else is okay. They all stand on or near the platform of the tank, which has no glass or water in it at all. Jonathan, Kali and Will all have flashlights out, their beams cutting through the darkness. The entire lab looks mostly the same, except for the part where it looks completely different. Weird, bulbous translucent eggs are piled in every corner and dark, twisted vines grow along the walls and equipment. There are massive holes in the walls and floor, gaps that will be big enough to travel through. The fog coats everything like a second skin, and in the distance, Steve thinks he hears a low groan. That, or some kind of weird, non-moving wind howling.

“This is the Upside Down?” Max asks, voice small.

Will nods, shoulders hunched slightly. “Yup.”

Jonathan looks like he wants to cry, but just clenches his teeth instead. “Which way now?”

Will turns, shining his light towards one of the holes in the wall. “This way.”

“We shouldn’t have any trouble with any demogorgons, or Mind Flayers,” Dustin says. “On our way here, this whole path seems pretty much deserted.”

“Right,” Steve says faintly. “Right.”

He goes to follow Will towards the hole, but a scraping noise makes him take pause. Max squeaks and runs right into Steve, half-huddling into his jacket. Kali spins, her pistol in her hand as she looks for the source of the noise. Steve’s about to reach for his bat when Jonathan shines his flashlight onto Jane.

Her hands are up and she’s focused on the computers surrounding the tank platform. She takes a deep breath - which Steve immediately wants to warn her against - but then her eyes focus in concentration. Her fingers clench, and the scraping noise occur again. The entire electronic panel groans and then lifts from the ground. Jane makes a small, triumph sound, and then twists her wrists. It all crumples like a paper ball before her, hovering in the air. Jane drops the entire mess carefully onto the floor without making any more noises.

“At least our powers work again,” Kali says, relief in her voice as she lowers her pistol.

“Let’s go,” Jonathan says.

 

+++

 

As they trapeze through the Upside Down, Will and Dustin take turns telling their story.

They walk the entirety of the basement floor of the Upside Down version of the Chicago Lab, sometimes using doors and sometimes going through massive holes in the structure. The longer they stay in the Upside Down, the more Steve feels affected. His steps feel heavier and his breathing becomes more labored. He increasingly becomes scared for - of - Dustin as they go. His voice grows weaker as they go, almost turning into a growl on some of his words. He has to stop walking a few times, hunching over on himself to start coughing. When he does, he lifts up his bandana from his mouth and just hacks. Black and green sludge come out of his mouth and he spits onto the floor.

Wearily, Steve notices Jane lift her hands up, a grimace on her face, each time it happens. He glances at Jonathan over Will’s head; it seems an unspoken thing, seeing Dustin get even weaker. That if something happens - a switch flips in him or some shit - Jane will have to suppress him. Steve closes his eyes for a moment, his heart feeling frozen in his chest.  

Steve walks next to Dustin, entire body tense. He’s the only thing separating Max from the demo-dog, and he eyes it wearily, hands on his bat the entire time. Blood no longer runs from the wounds on his palms, not exactly. His bandages are stuck to his flesh now, entirely soaked with blood and making it hard to keep a solid grip on his bat. Because even though the demo-dog is still behaving as well as ever, he fucking feels it, right in his gut, that this won’t last long.

“I had another seizure as soon as those metal things separated all of us,” Will is explaining. “Once it happened, I was in the Upside Down again.”

“And it was like the other times, where the Mind Flayer couldn’t feel you?” Max asks.

Will nods. “The good thing about the Upside Down is that it’s not exactly the same. Stuff is… rotting, almost. So when I was using my True Sight, I did some recon. Saw that the gate was up on the top floor, across the building. Towards the Northeast?”

Kali hums. “The tunnels are close around to that side of the building.”

“So that’s where the new hub is, too,” Steve mutters. “Great. Not too far from the gate, then.”

Will nods. “I saw the hub. It’s different, in the Upside Down. Kind of like… a cave? The Elder Brain must be inside.”

“We couldn’t get back through to you guys, and we waited, but we didn’t think you were coming through,” Dustin rasps. “So after Will finished with his True Sight trip, we decided to try you on the walkie-talkie and explore the building a bit.”

“Nance’s sweet skills came in a lot of help,” Will adds.

“Plus, there was almost no security,” Dustin says. “But we figured that was because of the demo-dogs.”

“Weren’t you worried we were demo-dog lunch?” Max asks.

Will shakes his head. “Not with Jane and Kali there.”

And that - the almost pure, unwavering faith that Will speaks with shakes Steve down to his core. Because fuck - fuck. How are these kids even real? With what they’ve faced down, it always circles back around to this. That they trust their friends and they remain optimistic and vigilant and just so damn smart.

“We were able to get through most of the building okay, until we got to the room with the gate in it,” Dustin says. “Anyway, we get into the room and it’s another trap. Demo-dogs.”

“Lucas was really smart, figured that those weird metal panels would slide down again. He had a bunch of rotting meat in his backpack -”

“Gross,” Max says, sounding fascinated.

“ - In case Dustin turned into a zombie and tried to attack us -”

“Fuck,” Steve mutters.

“ - And threw it towards the hallway,” Will continues. “The rest of us just tried to not become lunch. Nancy had her pistol, too, and she did a lot of shooting.”

“By the time the metal panels came down, there was only one demo-dog in the room with us,” Dustin nods his head towards the beast. “And we all thought we were gonna die. But then something really fucking cool happened.”

“What?” Jane asks.

“It was going to snap at me, but then stopped all of a sudden, and just looked at me,” Dustin says proudly. “And it was like - you know, how you said you used a fake demo-dog to control Hopper, Kali? I could control the demo-dog!”

“Right,” Kali says.

Steve shakes his head. “Shit.”

“After that, it was just trying to get into the files and stuff in the room,” Will says. “We think it’s Brenner’s main office, actually. Because there’s a bunch of stuff in there - physical files and on the computer -”

“Will was able to find a bunch of messages between Brenner and this other scientist, talking about the Upside Down and the demo-dogs and stuff -”

“Yeah, we read the same messages,” Jonathan says.

“Good, so we won’t have to catch you up on that stuff,” Dustin says. “That would’ve been annoying as hell.”

“Mike remember that water tub thing in the room you guys were in,” Will says. “So we decided to come through the gate and go through the Upside Down to come rescue you. We were just leaving as we got your call.”

“And your control is so strong over the demo-dog that you could make it create a portal?” Kali asks, eyebrows going high.

“Yeah, cool as fuck, right?” Dustin asks.

Will says, “It’s less of a portal and more like a wound.”

“In the very fabric of space-time,” Dustin adds.

He stops to cough, and it’s like a punch to Steve’s fucking gut. They all pause, right at the bottom of a staircase. It looks like there’s moss growing all over it, but dark and dangerous. He looks away from it, barely noticing as Kali steps closer to him. He almost jumps when she touches his side, but stops himself and just glances down at her instead. She looks at him, with her fucking deep, soulful eyes. It’s comforting, and he manages to crack a small smile at her. She squeezes at his side before stepping back.

Kali looks like she’s about to open her mouth when Max’s good arm shoots out, smacking Jane in the chest. Jane grunts, trying to whack her arm away. Max’s face is pale, and Steve doesn’t think it has anything to do with the pain she’s in because of her shoulder.

“Do you hear that?” she whispers.

Everyone pauses, and Steve’s grip on his bat tightens. He prepares himself to hear the horrible groan of a demogorgon, but it’s the faint, almost faraway sound of someone talking. It reminds Steve of being in his family’s pool, completely submerged and listening to people talk outside of the water.

“Dr. Brenner, we thought the breech was under control -”

The answering voice is clipped, calculated. “You should have contacted me the minute any of the alarms sounded. Your incompetence astounds me.”

“Dr. Brenner -”

The low, male voice continues his pleadings and ass kissing, but Steve tunes out when he catches the look on Kali’s face. She stands frozen where she stands, breath coming short and quick. She’ staring off down the hallway, eyes not focusing on anything in the fog and ash. Beside her, Jane’s hands have come up, lines of her face hard and frightened. Her breathing is audible, sounding too loud in the eerie atmosphere. Steve’s voice is caught in his throat and there’s nothing he can do, or say, now.

Nothing at all.

“We assumed that the creatures down in Stone’s lab would have taken care of the threat -”

“You know what they say about assuming, don’t you? Test Subject Zero Eleven’s photo is plastered all over the goddamn building! As soon as you learned of the breech and saw that little -”

“Papa,” Jane whispers. “Papa, Papa, Papa -”

He continues. “It is absolutely unacceptable that you’re telling me that not only is Stone’s lab occupied, but apparently, my own office is as well. It’s goddamn incredible that a bunch of snot-nosed kids were able to sneak around this goddamn place practically undetected and get into my fucking office!”

“Dr. Brenner -”

“And, since we have no cameras in these rooms, we have no idea what is happening. Is that right?”

“I -”

“I don’t like not knowing what’s going on inside my goddamn facility!”

“Dr. Brenner, please, we have a team coming to -”

“Shoot him.”

A loud noise reverberates through the air. The gunshot cracks like a bolt of lightning through Steve. Will squeaks and Max starts trembling. Jonathan catches Steve’s eyes over their heads.

A new voice speaks, steady and short. “Dr. Brenner, awaiting other orders, sir.”

“Since we only caught Test Subject Zero Eleven and Test Subject Zero Eight go into Stone’s lab but not exit it on the cameras, we’ll have to just assume that they are trapped inside or dead. Them, I will deal with later.” the voice gets tight. “But as for the intruders inside my goddamn office -”

“Sir, it appears that they’ve trapped some of the creatures in the hallway between us and your office. It will take us some time to figure out how to… subdue the creatures -“

“You have weapons, do you not? If children can - do I fucking have to do everything myself!”

“No, sir. It was just that you previously expressed the desire to… keep casualties to a minimum -”

“Capture the creatures or kill the creatures I don’t fucking care, just get me into my office!”

“Yes, sir.”A pause. "It will take some time for reinforcements to come in."

"For the love of -"

“We have to go, now!” Will says, voice high and frightened. “They’re going to -”

Kali steps up, voice hard. “They’re not going to do anything. We’ll get them first. Okay?”

They all break into a run, after that.

Steve barely pays attention to where they’re going as they slip up the stairs, running up too many flights to count. Everyone’s breathing gets more ragged as they go up. Once they reach the landing, Steve has to bend over slightly, worried that he’s about to vomit. The spores and the fear are making it harder than ever for him to breathe.

They move to turn the corner to go down a long hallway. From where they stand, Steve sees a metal barrier blocking off their path. It’s just like that weird material that was used to trap them inside the lab with the demo-dogs. Something spins in his stomach. If they were in the real world, they wouldn’t be able to pass through it. But here, there’s a gaping hole in the wall like someone - something - tore right through it.

“Brenner’s office is just through the hole and down the hall,” Will says.

Dustin coughs once, and then collapses.

“Dustin!”

Steve reaches for him before the kid fucking falls onto a dark vine sprouting from the wall. Steve drops his bat as Dustin lands in his arms. All of his limbs splay out, as if he no longer has control over them. Under the goggles, his eyes are only half open, black veins protruding around his forehead and cheeks. He makes a low, groaning noise. Even through all of their clothing is between them, Steve can feel the sweat pouring off of Dustin. Panic runs through him as Dustin twitches slightly, and he knows that this is it. Dustin’s turning into a demo-zombie.

“We gotta go, now,” Steve tries to say.

He’s interrupted by a loud screech. He barely glances up before the demo-dog, no longer under Dustin’s control, lunges at him. Steve braces himself and folds over on Dustin’s body, trying to protect the kid. And it’s like - it’s just like, fucking hell, again, he’s back in the tunnels. Only this time, he knows this is it, this is the end. He’s going to die in the shadow of real life.

“Steve!”

Will's panicked voice reaches his ears. He squeezes his eyes shut, clutching Dustin to his chest as hard as he can. As if he can protect the little shit from the demo-dog and from turning into a mindless, Upside Down drone.

But the sharp bite of the demo-dog never comes.

Instead, something wet and slimy splatters into his hair and over his cheeks. He hears the sound of his bat hitting flesh, smashing into bone and cartilage. Steve flinches away, practically falling over onto the hallway floor. Blearily, he looks up. Kali stands there, his bat in her hands, as she swings on the demo-dog. It whines, high and angered, before twisting around and trying to snap at her. Kali swings his bat out again, looking exactly like the avenging hit man he basically accused her of being.

Except - well.

He thinks of her more as an angel.

As the bat clips the demo-dog in the side of the face, the creature explodes.

Steve tries to crawl backwards as well as he can with Dustin still lying limply in his arms. He winces away from the blood and gore, frightened to holy hell that some of it is gonna get into his eye or some shit. But then Kali is on him in a heartbeat, falling on the floor. Her arms go up to grip to his shoulders and his neck and his hair. He looks up at her, and there’s something wild in her eyes. They’re darker than he’s ever seen them, as they scan over his face and her fingers clutch at his skin. It’s a little awkward with Dustin between them, but she leans in anyway and kisses him, hard and fast.

As his heartbeat slows down he barely feels it, the press of her chapped lips onto his. What he does comprehend is her smell, breaking through the sticky sweet disgustingness of the Upside Down. Her fucking Irish Spring scent, cutting through the blood and ash and darkness. It calms him down, just for a moment. And as Kali starts to pull away he instinctively leans forward, trying to chase her lips.

She’s already standing up and moving away from him though, looking as surprised as he feels. Jonathan stands a few feet away, arms wrapped around Will and Max in a protective grasp. They both have disgusted looks on their faces, but Jonathan just smirks back at Steve. Slightly in front of them is Jane, her hand still up and clenching. It takes Steve another moment to realize that she had torn the demo-dog apart with her powers. He swallows, looking at her. She purses her lips at him slightly before lifting her head up at him. It reminds him so goddamn much of Hopper that he has to let out a weak laugh.

He struggles to his feet, Dustin still in his arms. The kid still hasn’t stirred, but that doesn’t mean much. They don’t know how long he’s gonna stay down. And in the distance, he hears the screech of another demogorgon.

“Let’s fucking go,” Steve says, voice only cracking a little bit.

Kali smiles at him then. He feels his heart swell and he thinks, fuck. Fuck.

The moment breaks, and they all sprint down the hallway towards the gate. It’s a huge, red-orange mass that reminds Steve of lava, maybe, or of the inside of a body. Because there are sinewy strands and something that seems to be pulsing right through it. Steve hesitates right in front of it, clutching Dustin’s body a little bit tighter to him.

“Don’t be a wuss, Steve,” Max says.

Steve’s about to look down at her and tell her that he’s not a fucking wuss, alright, this is just some trans-dimensional gate and it’s fucking scary looking, shit. But she just rolls her eyes at him and grips onto his jacket pocket with her good hand. On her other side, Will and Jonathan stand like they’re bracing themselves for something unpleasant. Something brushes against his shoulder and he turns. Kali’s right next to him, all the humor gone from her face. Jane holds on tightly to her hand.  

Max tugs him forward, and then they’re going through the gate. The feeling of going through the goo makes Steve want to retch. Everything stretches and molds around him and Dustin like a fucking second skin, and it’s disgusting. Every fiber of his being is crying out to be free of this, of this wet elastic coating him and running down his throat -

He stumbles out of the gate and back into the real world hard, almost crashing to his knees on the hard floor. He just manages to stop himself, some part of his mind wary of dropping Dustin. They’re all still stuck right in front of the gate, a large, fiberglass wall circling around the perimeter of the trans-dimensional hole. Steve lurches slightly and there’s a low buzzing sound. Then the fiberglass slides back, and they all stumble deeper into the room. The buzzer sounds again, but Steve barely notices as the glass slides back into place.

Max collapses onto the floor right in front of the glass. Her body spasms slightly like she’s trying not to vomit all over the floor. Lucas is sliding towards them in a flash, already on his knees as he reaches Max. He grabs at her shoulders and shakes her gently, stopping only when a whimper of protest comes out of her mouth.

“My shoulder, Lucas,” she says, before wrapping her good arm around him tightly.

Mike and Jane are hugging like they haven’t seen each other for twenty years and it’s a damn Harlequin romance novel. Nancy somehow has both Will and Jonathan in her own death-grip, and Jonathan’s head is tilted down towards Nancy’s ear. His mouth is moving fast as his arms clutch her and Will tightly to him. Kali has stumbled a few feet into the room and leans heavily against a desk, hacking up and spitting on the floor. Steve’s not ashamed to say he’s relieved to see it just looks like regular bile and nothing black or ashy.

Steve manages to straighten himself up, looking around the room. It’s a strange mix of doctor’s lab and regular office. There are metallic instruments all over the place and what looks like an operating table. A large, oak desk sits in a corner with a massive computer on it, as well as a number of file cabinets. All of the walls are covered in the weird, electric metal sheets. The whole place looks like it’s been ransacked; papers are spread all over the floor and drawers stick mostly out of their cabinets.

Steve makes for the operating table, gently laying Dustin on it. Exhausted as he is, he still has the presence of mind to notice all of the metal straps around the bed. He makes quick work of strapping Dustin down, bile rising into his mouth at the idea of restraining the kid. Because even though Dustin still hasn’t moved, aside from his shallow breathing, he doesn’t look good at all. Steve gently tugs the bandana and goggles off of Dustin’s head to get a better look.  His skin is deathly pale and sweat drips off of him; the black veins have becomes even more pronounced. Steve stumbles away slightly. He pulls his bandana down off of his mouth and pushes his goggles up into his hair, tangling in the locks. Steve blinks his eyes wide open and takes shuddering breaths. Just as he turns, Nancy’s running up to him and she pulls him into a large bear hug. Steve sighs, gently patting her on the back.

“God, you all smell horrible,” Nancy says, as she pulls away.

“Yeah, well,” Steve says.

Kali steps up, standing next to Nancy. Steve’s surprised to see Nancy lean into Kali, slipping her arm over her shoulders and tugging her tight into a one-armed hug. Kali leans back into her, sighing.

“Brenner and his goons -” Kali starts.

“I know." Nancy nods. "We heard them screaming.”

A feeling of dread knots in Steve’s stomach. “The demo-dogs in the hallway. Nice.”

“Lucas,” Nancy says. “It was all Lucas.”

“That won’t hold them for long,” Kali says. "They'll send in reinforcements."

“I know,” Nancy answers, her face tight. "We'll just have to be finished by then."

They all turn to look at Jane, who has just pulled away from Mike. But she doesn’t even seem to notice the three almost-adults staring at her. Her eyes shoot right to Dustin, on the operating table. She makes a small, pained noise, and goes to reach for him. All at once, the other little shits seem to notice, as well. A moment later, they’re crowding around the operating table, speaking over one another.

“What happened to Dustin?” Lucas’s voice is incredibly upset.

“He collapsed in the Upside Down,” Max says.

“All that exposure must’ve...” Will trails off, leans up to wipe at his eyes with his hands.

“They had to go in after you guys, but there weren't any Hazmat suits,” Lucas says, voice small.

Before Steve can say anything, Jonathan steps up to all of the kids. Steve hangs back, standing next to Nancy, as Jonathan puts his arm around Lucas’s shoulder. All of the kids stare down at Dustin, looking completely upset. Jane’s fists are clenched into fists.

“He hasn’t shown any signs of… zombism yet,” Kali says. “That’s good, guys.”

“Yeah,” Lucas says quietly. “Yeah.”

“Guys, we -” Nancy takes a deep breath.

But Mike interrupts her, his hand clenched on Dustin’s legs. “I know how to fix him.”

The room goes quiet for a moment, nothing but the hum of the building settling around them. Steve shivers slightly, still coated in blood, Upside Down ash, and gate goo. All the eyes in the room turn to stare at Mike. But Mike just looks down at Dustin, face tense and angry.

“We have to electrocute him,” Mike says.

 

+++

 

They all crowd around Brenner’s desk, Mike sitting in the big, overstuffed office chair. He clicks through a bunch of files on the computer until he lands on one that’s talking about the electricity experiments done on the demo-dogs. Jonathan has his camera out again and takes photo after photo of the screen. Steve tries to focus, but his mind keeps straying as he tries to listen out for the sounds outside of the door. Every so often one of the demo-dogs scratches at the metal or howls, but it’s mostly silent, for now.

For now.

“While we were waiting, I looked more into the files on these computers,” Mike says. “And there’s a bunch of messages here about how the demo-dogs could momentarily be controlled with electricity.”

“We read through some of that, too,” Jonathan mutters.

Mike jabs at the screen. “It says here that early experiments straight-up killed them, though, because the current was too high.”

Nancy lets out a deep breath. “So you think if we use electricity on Dustin...”

“We can force the slime out of him, the same way you got the Mind Flayer out of me,” Will says, absent-mindedly rubbing at his side, at his burn scar.

Mike nods. "They ended up making this - this device thing, to zap them. I think it was... similar to that thing that they used, on your... on that boy who was killed, Kali."

Anthony, Steve wants to correct him, but his mouth is too dry. His blood is pounding in his veins and all he can think is no. No, they're not gonna fucking electrocute Dustin, they're not going to rip him open and jab that thing into him - 

“We can’t electrocute Dustin!” Lucas snaps. “What if we kill him!”

“We can’t risk him turning into a zombie either!” Max throws her hand out.

“And we don’t know what will happen to him if he’s like this when the gate is closed,” Nancy says, eyes hard.

“No!” Steve finds his voice as he backs away from the group, pointing at Dustin. ”This is a shit plan!”

“Yeah, it is, Steve,” Mike says. He sounds world-weary, much to old for a fucking thirteen year old. “But it’s the only plan we’ve got.”

“No, no,” Steve glares. “I’m sorry, no. There’s no way to do this, no way to control it! The kind of shock you use on a fucking demogorgon won't be the same for a fucking kid, for this fucking kid -”

Will steps up to him. “I can control it.”

Steve stops short. “What?”

Will nods. “When I was in the Upside Down… the first time… I was able to control electricity here. It’s how I communicated with my mom.”

“So?”

“So, I can control the current,” Will speaks slowly, carefully. “From the Upside Down. Make sure that as soon as that thing’s out of Dustin, he won’t be killed.”

Steve can’t believe he has to fucking listen to this. Because it’s fucking insane, right? It is. Out of all the shit they’ve done, fucking electrocuting Dustin has got to be the worse plan yet. Because… because what if he doesn’t survive? They don’t know what they’re dealing with; none of them know exactly what’s inside of him. Steve knows, from Nancy, that getting the Mind Flayer out of Will almost killed him. Steve just. He can’t believe that they could get so lucky twice.

“Steve,” Jonathan is speaking to him directly now, face softening and tone gentle. “Steve. I know what you’re going through now -”

And Steve knows, logically, that Jonathan is being a hundred percent truthful. And probably even more so, because Jonathan and Will are brothers. Flesh and blood and bone. And Jonathan’s been through everything with Will, from when he was first taken last year to practically killing him a few weeks ago. But the anxiety keeps building in Steve and his vision is going blurry and he can’t breathe, holy fuck, he can’t breathe. They can’t do this to Dustin, they can’t -

“Steve!” Jane’s voice cuts through the haze, sharp and clear.

Steve looks up. Jane’s face is completely serious.

“El -” Mike starts to say.

Jane shushes him. “You’re scared. I am too.”

That doesn’t fucking help, not really. But no one else says anything, and Steve just keeps staring at this small, strange girl.

“I promise, Dustin will be safe,” she continues. “I promise.”

Her eyes are so intense that it’s kinda terrifying to stare at her for too long. But Steve stays silent anyway. His gaze slowly crawls from this kid’s face over to Dustin, still limp and strapped down to the operating table. He swallows, and then looks back at Jane. She lifts her chin up slightly, and it reminds him so fucking much of Kali.

“Friends don’t lie,” Jane says. “I promise.”

And it’s - he knows this kid is patronizing him, at least a little bit. He knows that it shouldn’t make him feel any better - in fact, he should probably be embarrassed - but her words, steady and strong, they do help. They do. And Steve’s not sure what to make out of that. Maybe he’s just so tired that he’s willing to believe in this kind of miracle. That even though everything is going to hell in a hand basket, that even though they haven't done any of the shit they've set out to do yet - well. Fuck it. If this little kid who can tear shit apart with her mind thinks Dustin’ll be okay, then. Maybe he will be.

Because Steve is pretty sure that she means it, when she says friends don’t lie.

“Yeah,” Steve says, finally. “Yeah, okay.”

The room seems to take a collective breath, and with that, everyone springs into action. Mike starts talking about how he's gonna look for the instrument the Lab uses on the demogorgons, how it's supposed to look like a feeding tube or something, that has an electric charge to put down Dustin’s throat. Nancy points out the telephone on the desk, saying that if this works, they need to call Hopper’s cabin as soon as possible to tell Joyce. Lucas mutters something about hoping to God that the new Lab folks are there already, that they’ll probably have some kind of instruments to be able to fry the zombie shit out of Hopper. Everyone else starts discussing the new plan. Jonathan and Will talk about going back into the Upside Down and locating the Elder Brain first, before coming back to save Dustin. Steve vaguely hears Kali and Jane agreeing to something about the gate.

But Steve wanders over to Dustin. He bows his head slightly, placing his hands on the kid’s arm. His face is almost white, and his curls are plastered to his forehead with sweat. His eyes move rapidly underneath his eyelids, black veins protruding everywhere. As he stares at the kid, all he can think about is driving him to the Snow Ball. Dustin had looked so excited but nervous, his hair all done up. Steve remembers the swell of pride in his chest over the kid - the stupid kid, who he barely knew before any of that. The stupid, brave, smarmy jackass who now means so goddamn much.

Steve has to take a deep, steadying breath so that he doesn’t start crying when he opens his mouth.

“Hey, shithead,” he whispers. “I - I’m sorry I didn't protect you better. This is all my fault. And I can’t - shit. There’s nothing I can do to help you now. You have to come back, cause there's still so much you haven't experienced, yet. So much I can teach you, about girls and school and how to make your hair not look like so much of a bird's nest at your next school dance."

Jesus Christ, it sounds like a fucking eulogy.

Steve clenches his jaw. "Just… If you can hear me, if you’re still in there, or some shit… look, you got this, alright? You got this.”

“Steve,” Kali’s voice says behind him.

Steve turns, jaw set. Kali’s face is almost expressionless, except for her eyes. She’s looking at him with an odd gaze; it’s not quite sympathy but it’s not comforting, either. A flash goes through him, and he wonders if this was how she felt, all those times in Hawkins Lab. Every time they took Jane away or when they killed Anthony. Something deep in his chest just fucking pulls on the threads of his heart and yanks them tautly.

“Yeah?”

“Will, Jonathan and I have to go back into the Upside Down now.” Her eyes watch him sharply. “Everyone else is going to stay here. Watch Dustin and guard the door in case Brenner’s men get in. Jane’s going to need all the support she can get.”

Kali doesn’t say it explicitly, but Steve reads between the lines. Her chin tilts down a bit, and there, there’s the fucking question. _Are you gonna stay here and support, or do you wanna kick some Mind Flayer ass with me_? And Steve - well, there's only one fucking answer to that. He tugs his bandana back over his mouth.

“Are you sure?” she asks.

“I’m with you,” he says.

 

+++

 

The goodbyes are short and bitter. Steve keeps cracking jokes about how the shitheads need to stop looking so glum, that he’ll be back in a few minutes. None of them laugh, and none of them pretend like this whole thing isn’t as serious as it is, though. Only Nancy gives him a small, plastic smile, and he thinks that it would be her that humors him in a fucking time like this.

Max squeezes him as tightly as she can with only one arm. Lucas buries his face in Steve’s chest and reminds him that all he needs to do is destroy the Elder Brain and the entire community falls. Nancy kisses his cheek and when she pulls away, they both pretend she doesn’t have tears in her eyes. Mike tells him not to be a jackass and just get in, get it done, and get out.

The only one left is Jane, who waits until him, Kali, Jonathan and Will are behind the fiberglass. The overly sweet stench of the Upside Down already infiltrates Steve’s nose, and he instinctively tightens his grip on his bat. The wood digs into his blood-soaked bandages, and he winces. Steve barely has time to think about whether he can get a gangrene infection from all this shit before Jane appears in front of him. She gently places her palm against the glass, nodding at him.

“Take care of her,” she says.

Beside him, Kali sighs. “Jane -”

“I won’t lose you again,” Jane says fiercely.

“I won’t,” Steve tells her, eyes darting to Dustin for a second. “I promise.”

Jane stares at him almost defiantly. “Friends don’t lie.”

“I know, kid, I fucking know,” Steve says. “Friends don’t lie.”

Kali interrupts. “Jane. Remember what we agreed on. Twenty minutes, okay? And if we’re not back - just close the gate.”

“I know,” Jane says. “Twenty minutes.”

Steve doesn’t say anything else. Because that’s it: the time limit for saving the world. Barely even the amount of time that it takes him to finish a fucking quiz in his English class.

 

+++

 

Steve keeps his bat steady in his hands as they walk through the Upside Down. It’s even worse than the first time, he thinks. The weight of their task is like a like a backpack during exams, pulling him down with every step. The aerosol can and the lighter in his pocket aren’t as comforting as he thought they would be. He finds himself looking over at Kali a lot as she walks beside him. His eyes rake over her hair and face. Every time he does, she looks at him out of the corner of her goggles, nodding slightly.

Otherwise, there’s no contact between the two of them. They stay quiet as they make their way down the Lab and out of the building. Surprisingly, they don’t run into any demogorgons or other creatures, which Steve hopes is a good omen. They pass by a number of slimy, golden eggs, which is bothersome, but Steve knows they can’t fucking focus on that right now. And anyway, if they kill the Elder Brain, they kill it all.

Hopefully.

Jonathan scans his flashlight along the Upside Down earth, and Steve notices as the dark dirt path turns into rotting cobblestones. As they hustle, the landscape around them slowly changes from a mirror of their world to something much different. The gnarled trees grow taller and more crooked; the ash falls more steadily and the lights grow brighter around them. Slimy golden creatures as big as Steve’s head buzz around them but seem mostly uninterested. It makes Steve’s stomach squeeze in protest as it reminds him, just a little bit, of the light show Kali created for him up on the roof.

Will stops short, a few feet away from a long ass tunnel of trees. Their dark vines stretch and grasp each other, continuously moving and creating a dark shadow over the ground. The trees must be over twenty stories tall. Low groans and sounds like thunderclaps echo out of the tunnel and towards them. Will winces and backs away slightly. But an eerie feeling of calm washes over Steve. He feels like he did, back in the Byers’s house, when Max had screeched that Billy would kill her and Lucas. Because just like then, Steve knows that this is it.

It's not just game day, it's the fucking championship match.

Will turns to him and Kali with wide, dark eyes. “This is the Mind Flayer city.”

Kali squares her shoulders. “And the Elder Brain is right down this path?”

“Inside the cave.” Will nods. “You’ll… when I, uh, visited, there were a few Mind Flayers there, guarding the outside. You’ll have to be really sneaky.”

The underlying threat doesn’t have to be voiced.

“Don’t worry, kid,” Steve says with a calm bravado. “I’m like a ninja.”

Jonathan gives him a concerned look, and Kali seems about two seconds from rolling her eyes.

Then, there’s nothing left to say, except their goodbyes.

Jonathan pulls him into a hug, surprising him; Steve grasps him tightly, conscious of the spikes in his bat as his arms go around him. When Will turns to hug Steve, the kid almost knocks him down with how hard he does it. It’s much more intense than Steve would’ve thought, and makes him squeeze Will just a bit too tightly. When they pull away, he has to refrain from ruffling the kid’s hair. Because for such a scrawny ass kid, Steve thinks, Will sure does have a lot of fucking guts. Guts and determination, written all over his sallow face.

“See you on the other side,” Jonathan says.

Steve swallows. “And you - Will. You got a good grip on this electricity thing, right?”

Will nods at him. “Yeah, Steve. I got it.”

 

+++

 

If Steve thought just walking through the Upside Down was bad, walking to the fucking city center of the Mind Flayers is a thousand times worse.

His arm is practically glued to Kali’s as they run down the tree tunnel. Even though they’re still on the broken cobblestone, their footsteps make no noise on the stone below them. All of the sound around them is flat, making Steve want to freak the fuck out. The air is wet and heavy, pressing down on him like ocean waves. He has to swing his bat every few feet to keep the vines from crawling over his shoulders and through his hair. Everything is so thick that he’s breathless and can barely push the words out of his lungs when he speaks.

“Kali,” he pants. “Kali, if we run into the Mind Flayers -”

Her voice is low, warning and wheezing. “Steve -”

“You have your own lighter, right?” he asks. “Because -”

“- Don’t be an asshole -“

“I can distract them, and you can get the shit done,” he finishes. “And just - if anything happens, just leave me there -”

“Jesus -” she huffs like his great-grandmother Marian with emphysema. “I’m gonna leave two bullets.”

He almost trips. “What?”

She looks at him, eyes hard. “No matter what happens, how many Mind Flayers or demogorgons there are, I’m going to leave two bullets.”

“I -”

“We get it done or we don’t,” Kali says. “But we don’t leave any part of ourselves behind for them to take.”

“Kali -”

“I have a plan, Steve,” she says. “Remember what I did with Hopper?”

The cave is just a few feet in front of them now. Steve almost trips as the path suddenly veers downward. Their feet splash into a thick, pungent water that quickly comes up to their thighs and waist. Steve almost gags at the smell; the oozing sweetness is a hundredfold thicker than anywhere else in the Upside Down. As they slosh through it, the sounds not even reverberating around them, Steve tries to pretend that he doesn’t feel the vines sliding around his legs. Momentarily, he forgets what Kali has just asked him.

“Steve.”

Every sense he has is overwhelmed by the thickness around him. The water, briny and freezing, has already made everything below his waist feel numb. The floating lights and ash are so thick he can barely see two inches in front of his face. And the quiet - the fucking quiet, it’s an echo chamber, fucking Christ - is so loud that he feels like his eardrums are going to burst any minute. For a moment he can't even tell where his body ends and where this ooze around him begins.

"Steve!"

A palm smacks against his chest, and it shocks the hell out of Steve. Before he can right himself, he stumbles forward, right into the darkness of the cave. In front of him, Kali’s hands are raised into fists, and through the haze he can’t quite read her expression. It's only after a moment that he notices that she’s shaking.

He gasps, “Kali.”

“I thought I lost you there, Steve.”

“I - what -”

Steve realizes that his own hands are shaking around his bat, but at least he hasn’t dropped it into the water below. He tries to suck in a deep breath but the air is too thick to do much else but wheeze. Something wet rolls down his face. Kali stares at him for a few more moments, body still tense, before she nods her head back.

“Steve. The Elder Brain.”

“Right,” Steve shakes his head, feeling sluggish. “Right. Yes.”

“You got this?”

He stares at her and the words come to him right away, again. “I’m with you.”

Kali looks like she’s about to argue, but then she just nods again. She turns on her heel and keeps running, deeper into the cave. Steve trips after her, the pound of nothingness still in his ears. His mind flits from scene to scene in his mind - playing keep away with zombie Hopper and Kali, clutching Dustin to him in the tunnels, racing through the Byers’s front hall with Nancy and Jonathan, riding in the backseat of his car with children's bandages on his face - and he tries to focus on Kali in front of him. He stares at her denim jacket, streaked with blood and guts, and her dark hair, glinting only slightly in the sparks of light that settle around them. His bat is heavy in his hands and the shit in his pockets feels like they’re weighing him down. But he doesn’t stop; he grips his teeth and runs. 

Before he can take another breath, the cave opens up into a room that feels too, too bright. The briny water fills up the room and almost comes up to Steve’s chest. At the center of the room is a tangled mess of squishy mush, throbbing like it has a heartbeat. It’s in a low set bowl, with tubes pumping dark, pinkish fluid out of it and into the rest of the room. A large, stone statue shaped like - Steve doesn’t even know what, at first, he thinks it’s a giant squid, before Will’s drawings flash into his mind - a Mind Flayer sit behind the bowl. Its tentacles are warped, green and copper, pushing water back into the bowl. Large columns circle around the center, puffs of steam and ash emerging from the tops every few seconds.

But Steve barely focuses on any of that as enormous creatures emerge from the shadows just beyond the center.

The Mind Flayers.

None of Will’s drawings could have prepared him for these horrifying fucking beasts. Towering over him, the only thing he can really see of them are the tentacle - no, vine? Shit - legs as they march towards him and Kali. A thick, black cloud hides most of their bodies, though Steve can see traces of a bulbous head. The dampened sound suddenly crashes as a loud, chittering screeches inside Steve’s eardrums.

A haze of black smoke comes shooting out at Steve, enveloping him. It feels like sludge, trailing through his scalp and under his bandana to his nose. He wants to drop his bat and clamp his palms over his ears, but he tries holds steady instead. It's difficult, though, with the voice inside of him, thudding along with his heartbeat, just telling him to give in, to give up. His mind swims, filled with the overpowering sweetness of the water and the ash of the smoke around him.

He thinks he hears a voice calling to him, and it sounds so fucking familiar. Something hard but sweet, and it’s a noise he likes. He wants to follow it. Something deep in his bones is pushing, telling him to remember, remember. But it's at such odds with what his fucking head is saying, what the haze around him wants him to do. He lets out a scream, wanting nothing more for this confusion to just end, for it to just fucking go away.

His knees buckle slightly, splashing him down further in the water. And he thinks yes, yes, this is a good idea. The further down he slides, the louder the beautiful noise gets. He wants to drown in the sounds. Bile rises up in his throat and he doesn't know what to do, doesn't know what he should be trusting. He wants to fold over onto himself and vomit, he wants to just sleep, sleep in the warm, sweet water below him. 

It would be so easy, something in his mind taunts. And doesn't Steve like easy? All he’d have to do is just lay down, float in the water…

Something screeches loudly, sliding through Steve's haze like a butter knife. 

 The noise is different than before; it sounds like it feels like to be drowning. It’s all Steve can think about, because he can’t see a damn thing. But the noise is pure panic, it’s pure instinct. It’s opening your mouth wide but feeling the salty ocean invade your lungs and it’s flailing your arms and praying that someone sees you. It’s feeling weighed down even though you know, you fucking know, all you have to do is kick strong enough to reach the surface, but the tide is too strong and your muscles have failed you.

Steve struggles because that sound - that sound is fucking awful.

And fuck no, he doesn't want to just drown, he doesn't want to give up - 

The floor underneath him shakes and Steve loses his footing as a thunderous crash reverberates through his skull. Without meaning too, his fists tense around something; and it's that pain, zinging through his palms and up his arms, that cut through the haze. He tries to gasp for air, but there’s something in his way, something like - cloth, maybe, and he buckles over, hair just skimming the top of the water. As he hunches over, he feels something thick and wet dribble over his lips and down his chin. It takes him a moment to realize he’s vomited on himself, mostly bile and pepperoni pizza. It’s the smell that gets him to snap back to this reality. The acrid stench of almost-digested tomatoes and cheese shoots through the overwhelming sweetness.

He doesn’t bother to wipe at his mouth, under the bandana; instead he takes a deep breath, taking in everything around him. It reminds him of why he's here and he focuses on being back in his body again - on his cuts and his bruises and his fucking desire, suddenly overwhelming, to beat the shit out of some monsters. 

It reminds him that he’s still fucking alive, and he’s got shit to do.

The screeching gets louder and the floor rumbles beneath Steve’s feet like a fucking earthquake. He still can’t see anything in front of him and he can’t speak, either. The smoke threading through him fluctuates, from so thick he can't even think to practically clearing away. He clamps his lips closed, belatedly not wanting to get any of the sludge into his mouth, but he can feel it, trying to get back in, trying to coat his teeth and his throat and his tongue -

“Steve!”

And that’s Kali’s voice, he knows that it is. She’s screaming at him but he can’t quite hear her. He turns his head and there she is, close by the Elder Brain. She’s lit up so brightly that he can see her even through the clouds and the darkness. Her hands are up, clenched into claws as she stares, dead on at the Mind Flayers. Blood flows freely out of her nose and she screams, a sound unlike anything Steve has ever heard before.

He swallows and lets out his own roar.

Then, he does what he does best.

He fucking starts swinging.

It feels like nothing’s happening, at first. It’s like he’s trying to blow away some fucking fog. He doesn’t understand how something that looks so flimsy could feel so real, so thick and wet and solid, crawling all over him and getting underneath his fucking skin. But he grits his teeth and screeches through his clenched jaw and swings and swings and swings. Until his feet seem to unlock in their place and he finally hits something, something hard like stone. The sound of nails against a chalkboard or some shit fills Steve’s ears.

Even though he can’t see, he knows, suddenly.

This is it.

He lifts his bat over his head and topples forward with the weight of his body. He falls into something soft, something disgusting and spongy and overwhelmingly sweet. His bat scrapes against it, and the screeching gets higher pitched. More and more black smoke crawls over him and almost chokes him, but doesn’t give in. He struggles to his knees. The thing - the Elder Brain - below him squirming and struggling and making it hard for him to stay grounded. But he lifts his bat up over his head again and with all his force - it's the World Series and here's a fastball, his mind supplies - he throws it down.

The cave shakes with the impact.

“Steve! Now!”

His hands jam into his pockets, fingers scrambling for purchase on his lighter and the aerosol can. The black smoke lifts ever so slightly, just so he can see what he’s doing in front of him. The Elder Brain pulses beneath him and stones fall all around him. The screeching continues on and on but it sounds so much fucking louder, a hundredfold. Steve’s fingers, wet with sweat and Brain fluid, slide against his lighter again and again.

He lets out a scream before his thumb catches onto the spark wheel, making the flame burn. He holds it out in front of him, as far as it will go, down towards the Brain. In the small light of his fire, he can see it, white and pink and red and purple, like some kind of disgusting quilt, crashing around the bowl. Steve digs his knees in firmly as hard as he can, about to spray the aerosol can.

Another ear-shattering noise runs through the cave, and the bowl jerks harshly to the right. Steve falls over, the side of his head bashing against the stone rim. Black spots burst behind his eyes as he howls in pain, almost unable to breathe from the impact. He tries to keep his grip on his lighter, but he feels it drop out of his hands. As his head lolls, he slides down onto the Elder Brain, almost completely submerged in fluid.

His entire body goes lax.

With his last coherent thoughts Steve knows that this is it.

This is the end. 

As his eyes drift closed, he feels an intense warmth, right in front of his body. Everything is red and orange and beautiful. A voice, too far away, curses at him, but he can’t be bothered. Because his entire front is so warm, so, so warm. It’s like he’s back in his living room as a child, playing ranger on the front hall carpet. Except this time, everything’s all wet and he can’t smell flames, just that sticky sweetness. And he’s melting into the sweetness, like pungent honey or some shit.

And it’s nice.

“Steve!”

It’s so nice…

So…

Nice…

To just…

Lay here…

“Steve!”

To be…

Be…

Nothing…

 

+++

 

He feels everything first, before the rest of his senses catch up.

First, there’s the unbearable fucking heat, like something scorching him along his front, like he’s a fucking pig on a roast or some shit. Then, there’s the nails scratching along his neck and yanking, hard, on the back of his collar. Finally, his entire body drags against something soft and disgusting, before his shoulder jams into something way too fucking hard.

The next thing he knows, he’s rolling over a ridge and toppling into a pool of salty, rank water. It tastes and smells like his used jockstraps, and Steve almost gags, except he doesn’t want it floating into his mouth. He feels his body sink down, before his entire side hits something like broken stones. He thinks he says _Jesus fucking Christ_ , but then the hands are back on his body. They bite into his arms and pull him up out of the water.

Steve stumbles to his feet, gasping for air, though that doesn’t taste much better than the water. His ears are pounding with high screeches and pained gasps and just fucking unpleasant-ass sounds. The hands on his shoulders have scourged down his arms and are pulling him by the palms. He fucking sees stars as the hands grip onto his tightly, and he remembers his open wounds. His legs seem to catch up before his brain does, though, because they’re running, tripping, moving in the same direction as the hands yanking on his. He gags as he runs, trying to suck down the nasty-ass air. 

And it’s that, the taste of sticky sweetness on his tongue, that pulls his brain back into the Upside Down.

Steve gasps, finally taking in glimpses of his surroundings.

And shit.

Fucking hell, shit.

Everything is on fire.

Steve glances over his shoulder to see the Elder Brain completely up in flames. It explodes and crackles like nothing he’s ever seen before, the fire spreading all over the stones and across the top of the water like it’s gasoline. Towards the back, the group of Mind Flayers - the Inquisition, Dustin’s voice belated says in his head - are screeching and have all toppled over on one another. The flames lick up their legs and light up the black clouds around their bodies. They yell and writhe like Judgment Day has come.

And, shit.

It fucking has.

“You gonna make me drag you back to the gate, or you gonna use your fucking legs?”

Kali’s voice snaps him back into attention, and he faces front. She’s right there, so close to him, and she’s the one yanking on his arm like she’s trying to pull it out of its socket. They’ve almost reached the entrance of the cave, rocks crashing down and waves of flames drenching all of the walls.

Steve swears and gets with the fucking program.

He runs in earnest, matching Kali step for step. They race through the water, the flames building behind them, bumping into each other as they go. Shoulders crash into elbows and thighs banks into the sides of knees. With each movement Steve’s body screams out in protest, but he doesn’t fucking stop. Kali never lets go of his hand, and Steve uses that comfort, that pain, to keep himself moving.

They race through the tunnel of trees, all alight and screeching after them as they move. Vines writhe around their heads, flailing as they burn. A few of them manage to smack Steve around his middle or his head, but he keeps pushing forward, ripping his body away from them. He tries to reach one arm back for his baseball bat, before remembering that he dropped it, somewhere in the Elder Brain. Kali catches his movement, and tosses something at him with her free hand.

He catches it, reaching up and almost diving to make sure he gets a good grip. Thick plastic bites into his palm, making him want to cry out. But he doesn’t; instead, he swings the thing at a vine smacking down towards him. It’s only after he hacks part of it off that he realizes he’s holding his butcher knife, the one he keeps under his pillow. He's gonna have to ask Kali why she fucking took it - and thank her, holy shit, he's gonna thank her so hard - later. 

Later.

It's such a small fucking word but it's exhilarating.

He would laugh, you know, if they weren’t literally fucking running for their life.

They’re going faster than Steve ever has in gym class or on the track field, and he wonders what Coach would say if he could see him now. He’s sure that he’s breaking all his records, which is great for him now, since, you know, they’re trying not to die. A thought pops into his head about whether or not he should put this time on his college applications. Almost as if she can read his fucked up mind, Kali glances over at him and laughs, breathless and high pitched.

It’s absurd, Steve knows.

He winks at her. 

 

+++

 

The fire chases them all the way back through the gate. It licks at their heels and spreads past the elastic barrier. Steve and Kali burst through it all, crashing right into the fiberglass wall. Steve’s shoes squeak on the linoleum, as he turns at the last minute, his side hitting the material. Sharp pain shoots throughout his entire body like a fucking lightening bolt. It’s only then that he drops Kali’s hand, the force of smashing right into the barrier causing him to jerk away from her.

A moment later, he almost falls over onto the floor as the fiberglass slides open.

A couple of pairs of hands grab at his jacket and pull him deeper into the room. He catches his breath, ripping the goggles and bandana away from his face. The bandana drags down his mouth and chin, wiping away vomit residue. Noises explode around the room, and Steve can’t tell what’s happening or where, exactly. He has a split second to take a breath before he spots Dustin, right next to him. Steve almost chokes, emotion swelling in his throat, as he grabs for the kid. His skin is a little pinker and he sure as hell doesn’t look like a zombie. Dustin laughs at him, and Steve wants nothing more than to slap the kid upside the head and then pull him into a fucking bear hug.

“Reunion time later, we’ve got a bunch of problems!” he hears Nancy’s voice call over the brouhaha.

All of the shits, except for Jane and Dustin, are crowded in the center of the room. They’re standing in a circle, all of them with weapons in their hands. Nancy stands in front of them, facing the door, with her pistol in her hand. Jonathan stands next to her, his crowbar in both of his. Jane stands in front of the fiberglass, yelling with a hoarse voice and her hands out in front of her. As she closes the gate, blood drips out of both of her nostrils, and her feet barely scrape against the floor. Fire slips out of the opening, crawling up the walls and towards the door.

Their only exit.

Beyond it, the sounds of demo-dogs screeching and lashing out come through the door. Human shouts and gunshots go off, resounding loudly against the metal in the hallway. Steve catches a glimpse of Kali run to stand in front of Nancy, Jonathan and the kids, her hands up again.

Something begins sputtering, and then Steve feels water raining down on them.

As fire sprinkles come down from the ceiling, wetting everything, the fire only rages larger. It’s like someone fucking tossed a pot of water on a grease fire, because the sprinklers are clearly not fucking working. Steve grabs at Dustin and pushes him away from Brenner’s desk, which has just begun to ignite. Dustin stumbles right into Jonathan, who catches him with one arm and pulls him close.

“El!” Mike’s voice cuts through the noise.

Steve turns just as the gate seals shut, leaving a scorched crack in the wall. Jane sways for a moment and then slumps, falling to the floor. Steve dives, knees sliding against the floor as he tries to catch her before she falls. He just barely misses her, and he curses as she lands. She lets out a low moan. Steve scrambles, arms going around her protectively. Entire body aching, Steve grunts and lets out a gasp of pain as he raises to his knees, helping Jane stand back up. She hangs onto his arm, looking like she's gonna collapse again at any moment. 

“Everyone, shut up, and as soon as that door opens, run!” Kali yells.

The room fills with black-gray smoke, and Steve’s having trouble breathing. He belatedly realizes that he should have kept his bandana on over his mouth, but he has no idea where it is. As the sprinklers rain over then and the fire rages, he staggers towards the group. He can hazily see Mike’s worried face, his arms trying to reach out towards Steve and Jane. But Nancy hauls him back up next to her, voice high as she tells him to run and not look back as soon as the doors open.

Metal cracks and wood splinters throughout the room. Just beyond the group, Steve catches sight of Kali. She faces the doorway, drawn up to her full height. Her hands are raised up high in front of her, and she takes one long, deep breath just as the door comes tumbling down.

Half a dozen fried demo-dogs lay in the hallway. Just behind them, countless armed men, wearing white Hazmat suits, crowd around the hallway. Someone barks sharp orders from behind the group, but none of them move. Even though their suits cover their faces, Steve can see that every single one of them is frozen in where they stand. Their shouts die immediately, and the only thing Steve can hear now over his rapid heartbeat is the fire spreading through the foundation of the room.

Kali flicks her hands slightly, the bones in her wrists popping. Like she’s fucking Moses or some shit, the guards part, leaving a path right down the middle of them. Her legs buckle only slightly, but she keeps her stance, head high and defiant. Steve’s mouth goes dry.

“Steve!”

He turns his head to look at Nancy, who hisses his name one more time. Her eyes are wide and watery; her hand is over her mouth, like she’s trying so hard not to inhale any of the smoke in the room. She’s reaching her arm back at towards him, the last of the group to run through the sea of guards.

Steve starts towards her, but stops.

Because he can’t - he can’t fucking leave Kali.

He turns, trying so damn hard not to let Jane drop like a sack of bricks, eyes wide as he stares at Kali. She doesn’t even flick her eyes towards him. Blearily, he hears Nancy still hissing at him, telling him to just move his fucking ass. But Steve - Steve just can’t. And it’s not only because Kali didn’t leave him behind, in the Upside Down.

It’s because of the way she looks at him, dark and calculating all the fucking time. It’s the way they woke up together, tangled in one another like the fucking messes they are. It’s the way her chapped lips feel against his, and how he can fucking feeling it all the way to the tips of his hair. It’s her soft, firm voice whether she’s telling him off or telling him a secret. It’s fucking -

He just can’t leave her, okay.

Because she’s - she’s something, to him.

Something to this world.

Jane whimpers meekly against him, pulling on his arm. She presses her face into his jacket to try and stifle her cough. He pulls her tighter to him, taking all of her weight, even as his brain screaming at him to keep fucking moving.

“A few minutes minutes,” Jane chokes out.

“What?”

“She can make you see things for a few minutes, after you’re gone.”

Steve’s about to ask her what the fuck that means, when Kali drops her hands and runs right at him.

For a moment, he think she’s about to slap him, but she just reaches out. Her hand slides against his jacket, tugging at it, before she latches onto Jane's hand. Together, they sprint through the sea of guards. Steve chases after them, coughing as the smoke gets thicker and the fire spreads throughout the room. He tightens his hold on his butcher knife, trying to ignore his mother's voice in his head, telling him not to fucking run with sharp objects.

He thinks she'd cut him so slack, just this once, though. 

But even as he braces himself to be smacked or shot or worse, nothing comes. As he runs through the tunnel of guards, they all continue to face front, bodies frozen like their statues. It’s then that Jane’s words stick right into his head, and he understands what she meant.

A few minutes.

A few minutes to hightail out of this fucking place, before the guards stop seeing whatever Kali did to them. A small part of him aches for when they had twenty minutes to save the world and get out.

Steve catches a glimpse of Nancy’s ponytail rounding the corner of the hallway, going back down the stairs. He’s about to keep running, following her, when he practically trips over Jane. She's stopped at the very end of the hall, Kali right next to her. Both of them have their hands up, elbows locked into place. 

Steve takes a sharp inhale, the air free of the heavy smoke where he stands.

For now.

He opens his mouth to yell at them that they gotta fucking move, but then catches the rage and fear in their faces. They're both turned around completely, facing back down the hallway to Brenner’s lab. The sea of guards seems to be waking up from Kali's vision, because they’re all shouting and trying to climb over one another in the burning hallway. 

A beam of wood crashes down a few feet away from them, and the smoke begins to trail down the hallway to them. Steve’s sweating underneath the sprinkler spray from the heat, his entire body exhausted. Steve wants to tell them to just move, that they need to get out of the building as fast as they can, fuck those guards. He’s pretty fucking sure that they’ve condemned all of them to death with the fire, anyway. Someone, he can’t bring himself really to care. Not after all this, not now. Maybe not ever.

But one of the guards seems to have caught sight of them, and moves closer down the hall. Steve’s about to yank Jane's and Kali’s arms back, to push them towards the stairs. But the movement dies as the guard takes his Hazmat helmet off, and Steve catches sight of his face. Steve’s only seen him one time, in a vision, but it’s a face that he’s never, ever gonna forget.

“Brenner,” Kali calls down the hallway.

Brenner starts running towards them, shouting for someone to apprehend the Test Subjects. Before anyone else can move, Kali’s arms are going behind her back. Steve watches, almost in slow motion, as she whips her pistol from out of her waistband. She brings her hands together in front of her, and points the gun right at Brenner.

Jane lifts her hands up higher, tilting her head up towards the ceiling.

Kali fires the pistol once, twice, three times.

The shots ring in Steve’s ears. Each bullet goes right through Brenner’s skull: the first near his hairline, the second through his cheek and jaw, and the third right between his eyes. Blood and brain splatters out of the back and Brenner falls where he stands.

Jane’s hands clench and metal rips out of the ceiling. The sheet rips apart and turns into hundreds of daggers. For a moment, she keeps them suspended in the air. Then with a harsh jerk, she brings her hands down and they all embed into Brenner’s body. Steve hears the sound of metal scraping against metal, and then, he’s nothing more but thin strands of muscle and bone. Blood seeps all over the floor.

Steve turns and throws up what’s left in his stomach, not that it’s much more than stomach acid, at this point.

He wipes at his mouth, shuddering, and looks back at Kali and Jane again. Jane has her arms up again, and brings down another sheet of metal from the ceiling. This she brings pulls at more gently. She molds it into like, a fucking door or something, and fits it into the hallway. It separates the three of them from Brenner’s body, the confused guards, and most of the licking flames. They all stand there for a few more moments, screams coming through the door.

Jane and Kali turn and look at him at the same time. They don’t look triumphant or bold or badass or anything like that, though.

They look like two tired, scared kids. Their faces are ashen and blood drips out of their noses freely. Even though they're both soaked from the sprinklers, they're still drenched in demo-dog blood and guts and Jane has a streak of ash across her face. Kali’s jeans have more holes in them than is - probably, Steve doesn’t know about punk looks - stylish.

But more than anything, they look broken. Like they’re both about to collapse where they’re standing. Like they can’t believe that it’s all over now, that the Elder Brain is burning to a crisp and the gate is closed and the monster that made them is fucking dead.  They both stare at him, eyes dark and the same hollowed look mirrored in their eyes. Steve thinks about what Kali asked him, not too fucking long ago.  _Have you ever killed anyone, Steve?_

Steve has no idea what the fuck to say or what the fuck to do.

He nods at them, jerking his head towards the stairs. "Yeah, yeah, okay."

They blink at him.

"Let's go home, okay?"

Jane sighs. “Home.”

Kali doesn’t say anything. Steve wants to swallow down the lump in his throat but he’s afraid it will taste like vomit. He straightens his shoulders and follows her and Jane as they jog down the stairs. The entire time, Kali doesn't so much as glance at him. Steve wants to tell her that he fucking gets it, but they'd both know that he'd be lying. 

They land on the first floor and race towards the back door, slightly ajar. Before the reach it, Steve feels something brush against the back of his hand, ever so slightly. It's only then that he feels Kali's gaze on the side of his face. When he looks back at her, her eyes are still dark and wrecked. Her eyebrows, though, are cocked at him, ever so slightly. 

Steve sighs at her, and then reaches for her hand.

She laces their hands together as Jane bangs the door open.

 

+++

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so so so so so so much for reading! Drop me a comment and let me know how I did as we start winding things up here. Only one more chapter left! GAAAAAAAHHHH!
> 
> EDIT: 
> 
> Sorry, I posted so fast I forgot to add:  
> 1) I got my image of the Elder Brain from this [Wiki page](http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Elder_brain?file=Baldur%27s_Gate_2_-_Creature_-_Elder_Brain.jpg)!  
> 2) Jane's move at the end was shamelessly stolen from Katara in the ATLA episode "The Southern Raiders" 
> 
> <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm DECEASED! 
> 
> You beautiful perfect human beans! I'm glad you all liked chapter seven and the grossness/sweetness that it ended up being :) 
> 
> Thank you for your comments and encouragement these past weeks over this fic! To be honest, I never thought it would get the traction that it has and I've just been. Overwhelmed!!!! At your comments this entire time and the outpouring of love. Not to get too sappy but for me, this is what fanfiction is all about - passion projects that just spur creativity and build communities. And for every single one of you who has subscribed, kudo'd, bookmarked and OF COURSE commented, thank you, so so much. From the bottom of my Stali heart ;) 
> 
> NOTE that I did change the rating from T to M. That's because of all the gore but also things get a little steamy (this joke will be funny later) and I just wanted to be sure. lmk if you think I should change it back!
> 
> Anyway, this is it, lads! 
> 
> Just one more chapter, as I've promised...
> 
> ...With a little something extra cause y'all should know by now I just can't help myself. I love angst! And fluff!!!!! Mostly fluff!!!

+++

 

They’re greeted by a too-loud alarm blaring and bright sunlight, peeking through the trees and reflecting off of Lake Michigan. As they run, Steve glances around wildly, scared that they’ll crash into some guards or some shit. Nothing comes at them, though. It does, however, take him longer than he’ll ever fucking admit to notice that Nancy, Jonathan, and the little shits are nowhere to be seen. Just underneath the alarm from the building, Steve thinks he hears the faraway noise of police and fire sirens.

“Where is everyone?” Steve tries to shout over the noise. “They wouldn’t have just left without -”

He cuts himself off when he notices that Kali goes incredibly still. Steve tries not to flinch as he looks at her. In the harsh light of the morning, she looks a hundredfold worse than she did in the Lab. The knees of her jeans are just hanging on by a few threads and her boots are caked in blood and black slime. His sweater - and that makes his heart flip, just a little, cause he had completely forgotten that she was wearing it - is gonna have to be incinerated. All of the makeup is gone from her face and blood still drips out of her nose. Her hair is flat and stringy; purple dye stains the shoulders of her ripped denim jacket.

“Kali?” Jane asks, voice cracked and exhausted. “Kali, I don’t feel so good -”

“They’re still in there,” Kali says instead of answering, eyes wild. “They -”

At that moment, Jane wilts onto the ground. Her knees smack into the asphalt, and she slumps over on her side like she’s boneless. Steve startles in alarm at the sight. Jane seems half-dead; her eyes are completely shut and her labored breathing is audible over all the noises. Kali reaches for her, kneeling to the ground and trying to prop Jane upright again. Her focus seems split in two, though. Even as she tries to haul Jane up, she’s darting her gaze frantically back at the Lab. Steve follows her sight upward. It looks like the entire top floor is on fire. The flames dance down the building and black-gray smoke starts to fill the air outside, covering the blue sky.

“Jane?” Kali’s voice is strained, flat and thin. “Jane!”

The sound of screeching tires rips through the parking lot.

Kali’s van swerves up towards them, like whomever is driving is completely drunk. The van seems like it’s going way too fast to stop, like it’s gonna crash right into them and then into the Lab. Steve yelps, trying to summon the last dredges of adrenaline left in his body. He dives towards Jane and Kali, trying to push them out of the way.

Kali is faster, though. Her muscles tense up and she grabs Jane by the shoulders, tripping into a sprint as she drags the younger girl with her and out of the way. Jane’s head lolls and her limbs hang heavy. Steve trips over his feet, crashing and rolling across the asphalt, wet with melted snow. He just barely manages to not land on Jane’s legs.

The van careens to a stop, just a few feet away from them. It rocks slightly as it does, as if the van might topple over at any moment. Steve hears cursing from the inside, and then the back doors crash open. Jonathan, Dustin, Mike and Will are piled inside, yelling over each other and stretching their hands out towards Kali, Steve and Jane. Mike makes a distressed noise when he spots Jane, and almost leaps out of the van. Jonathan reaches out, trying to grab him by the collar of his jacket. But Mike shoots out of the van, running right towards Jane. He crashes to the floor, putting his arms around her and trying to lift her up. Jonathan runs out of the van too, going right for them.

“Steve,” Kali’s eyes are wide, bottomless. “Steve, my - the others. Sixteen and twenty-two -”

Steve curses, body trembling with the effort it takes to still be standing upright. He tries to speak but coughs instead, the sticky-sweet taste of the Elder Brain fluid feeling like a phantom over his tongue and throat. He stares back at Kali, brain fuzzy and not entirely sure what she’s asking of him.

“Get in, get in!” Dustin squeaks, voice sounding like he’s a pack-a-day smoker. “We saw some cop cars -”

“We gotta get outta here,” Will finishes.

Steve doesn’t move a muscle, still looking right at Kali. Her eyes are pleading; the wide, frantic look in them scares the shit out of him. She looks at him like she’s asking for permission, or - no. Not fucking permission, for absolution. Jonathan’s yelling something at them, as he shoves pass them, carrying a limp Jane in his arms. Steve feels small hands tugging at his jacket, and he thinks it’s Mike, or maybe Dustin. From the front seat, Nancy screams at them to hurry.

Understanding dawns on Steve.

“Sixteen and twenty-two,” he whispers. “Oh, shit. Sixteen and -”

The sirens from cop cars blare even louder now, and out of the corner of his eyes, Steve sees bright, brilliant red and orange, white and blue lights flashing down the parking lot. Any minute now, the cars will show up. Asking too many questions, questions that none of them are equipped to handle. Not in their present state, not with dried blood and haunted eyes -

He gives Kali the only thing he can, right now.

“We don’t have time,” he says, reaching out for her hand. “We can’t.”

For a split second, he thinks that she’s going to shove him away. Anger flashes over her face, before something much more complex settles into her skin. Gratefulness, rage, self-loathing maybe, and acceptance. She swallows hard, tears forming in her eyes, and she stumbles towards him.

Her footing is not as sure as they both might’ve thought, because Steve curses as she crashes right into him. He tries to lock his knees so he doesn’t move, but takes a few steps stumbling backwards anyway. All of the air is knocked from his body as the backs of his knees hit the van. Before he knows what’s happening, too many fingers are grabbing onto his shoulders and waist. Jonathan and the little shits haul him up into the back of the van, his body banging against the metal with every yank. Steve can’t do much but hold on tightly to Kali as they’re dragged backwards. His feet aren’t even completely inside the car before the engine starts again, and the van is peeling out of the parking lot.

He tries to keep a hold onto Kali as they roll and crash against a seat. Steve curses as the nerves in his side light up, flesh ramming into metal. Dustin loses his footing and lands on top of Steve. It’s a tangle of limbs and just straight-up fucking pain. As the van screeches out of the lot, cop cars and fire trucks peel hard and fast behind them. Someone yells a warning, and it takes Steve a moment to realize it’s his own voice.

Kali scrambles towards the van doors, flapping open and slamming against the sides of the van. She’s on her knees, swaying with the movements of the car. Her hands are up and even though she’s almost doubled-over, her head stays high. None of the police or rescue cars follow them as they speed along Lake Michigan and back towards the construction site. It’s only then that Kali wobbles and turns, her eyes meeting Steve’s.

The kids scramble around in the bed of the van, trying to get into seats as it rocks with speed. Mike ends up knocking into Dustin, both of them collapsing somewhere near Jane, still unconscious. Lucas and Max yell from the passenger’s seat to hold on tight.  Jonathan lunges for the back doors, still banging open and shut. He almost slams one of the doors onto his hand trying to get them closed.

Steve tries to reach out for Kali, but his palms, bloody and raw, can’t find purchase on the carpet underneath him. Kali’s eyes are glazed over almost, and her breathing is too fast and too shallow. She sounds like she’s trying to choke down air but nothing is happening. She starts to sway on her knees as her short, stunted breaths grow closer together and more laborious.  Blood gushes out of her nose, spilling all down her lips and onto Steve’s sweater. Then, her body goes limp.

Steve manages to roll towards her, catching her before her head can slam against the van floor. His elbows bang down, cradling her in his arms. Just behind her, Jonathan has managed to shut and lock the van doors. He collapses against them, dirt and sweat running down his face.

“Fuck,” Steve breathes. “Fuck.”

The van slows down to a normal pace. Everyone begins to shift around, trying to find somewhere steady to sit. Jane is slumped over in one of the seats, Mike on the floor right next to her. Dustin and Will share another chair, breathing hard and leaning on one another for support. Steve shifts, leaning against the seat of one of the chairs. He slings his arm around Kali, pulling her close to him. Her head lolls onto his shoulder and chest and he tightens his grip, not willing to let go of her. Glancing out of the back window, he can see that they’re back on the highway, heading towards Indiana. The road behind them is completely clear of other cars. He laughs, tiredly, a thousand thoughts floating in his head.

Jonathan nods at him. “We did it. We actually… we did it.”

Steve tilts his head back, rough fabric scratching at his neck. “Shit.”

Some Top 40s radio channel floats through the cabin towards them. Steve’s so tired that he can barely keep his eyes open. The tension slowly drains out of his body and he can feel himself slumping lower, exhaustion overtaking him. Just as he’s about to fall asleep, Max and Lucas’s almost hysterical laughter reaches him. He thinks his mouth forms the words to ask them what the fuck is so funny, but then the rest of the little shits are laughing too. And he’s not sure exactly who starts it, but then they start singing along to the song on the radio. As his brain catches onto the lyrics, a smirk cracks onto his face.

He falls asleep to them yelling Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at the top of their lungs.

 

+++

 

Steve comes to halfway between Chicago and Hawkins.

A cold breeze slides across his face, and he opens his eyes blearily. Everything in his body screams in protest, from the arch of his feet to the headache pounding behind his eyes and his skull. The first thing he notices is that the van has stopped moving; the second thing he notices is the hushed whispers somewhere near his feet. He’s still sitting on the floor, head propped up against the chair. There’s something soft pillowing him on either side, but he barely pays attention to that. He lolls his head, trying to focus his eyesight on something, anything. He catches sight of a mop of curly hair, mostly plastered down and tangled.

Dustin waves at him from outside of the van. “Hey, Steve.”

Steve groans and tries to get up. Gentle hands push on his shoulders and move him back down firmly, though. He tilts his head up, pushing it right into something soft and sticky. Kali, in his fucking sweater.

She leans over him slightly, a tired, sad smile on her face. It’s only then that he realizes exactly how he’s positioned. She’s sitting upright in the chair behind him, looking down at him. Her legs are splayed out, one on either side of his body, sort of caging him in. His neck is at a slightly awkward angle, as his head is pillowed against one her knees. Before the sensible side of his brain can pick everything up, the dumb, horny teenager side of his brain comes rearing to life. He wonders if she would smack him for saying, _Kali, if you wanted my head between your legs, all you had to do was ask._

“You okay there, buddy?” Dustin asks.

He still sounds like the Marlboro man, but there’s a cheerful lit to his voice that has Steve smiling. Or rather, trying to smile. Just moving his face kinda fucking hurts. He almost groans, wondering why it hurts to just exist. But it fucking figures. He's just a pile of bruises that he's gonna have to try and hide or explain away.

And shit.

With how he’s feeling, he’s really gonna have to make up something good.

Like fucking getting his ass beat in a mugging or something.

Yeah.

Now he’s just gonna have to fabricate a story to go with it cause no one in their fucking mind is gonna believe he got mugged in Hawkins. Where would that happen, anyway? In the fucking parking lot of the butcher’s shop? Shit.

“I’m fine, asshole,” Steve manages to croak out.

Dustin gives him a dirty look and then saunters off. Before Steve can call after him, something tugs at a knot in his hair. Tentative fingers thread through the strands, nails gently scratching at his scalp. Steve tries to glance up at Kali again, but her hands keep his head in place. He takes a steadying breath, trying to find the right words.

Too many things are going through his mind, too many things that he wants to ask her all crowding into his throat. He wants to know that she’s alright, not only physically but also emotionally. He wants to apologize for having to leave the two other Test - her siblings - behind. He wants to ask if she feels any better for killing Brenner or if she just feels empty. He wants to ask what she’s going to do now, what she’s going to do next. He wants to comfort her, wants to kiss her, wants to ask about them - is there a them, even? Can he ask that, now that the dust has cleared and they’ve kissed twice and shared secrets and slept in the same bed?

But - just like all the other fucking times, he thinks bitterly - when he opens his mouth, he says fucking nothing.

“I’m gonna have to write a letter to Farrah Fawcett and tell her that her hairspray sucks,” he rasps. “What kind of product can’t last through interdimensional travel and nasty-ass brain water?”

The fingers in his hair still, and then Kali’s body starts shaking. The tremors start out small, but then her knees are knocking into his shoulders and the side of her head. The grip on his hair tightens, and Steve glances up to see her silently laughing. Her entire body trembles as she doubles over herself, hair dropping down over his face like a curtain. Her mouth is open completely wide and her eyes are screwed shut, tears running down her face. Her breath kinda stinks - they’re really close, alright, and haven’t brushed their teeth in for-fucking-ever - but he wants to tilt his head even further and kiss her anyway. He wants to know how it’ll feel, for his lips to chase after the joy on her mouth.

She unfurls herself though, leaning back against the chair again. She shifts her hips, legs stretching out even further on either side of Steve. He nuzzles his face into the side of her knee. The denim is rough against his face, but it feels kind of nice. He turns his head, mouth pressed completely into the fabric. He mouths at it gently, trying to tell her all of the things he wants to say but can’t find the courage to say out loud.

 

“Oh!”

Nancy’s voice interrupts his internal anguish and Steve lifts his head up, turning back towards the open van doors. She’s staring back at him already with a mischievous look in her eyes, and Steve can’t help but grin back at her. Out of all of them, Nancy probably looks the least worn down, but that’s not saying much.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she says, “but I’m glad to see you’re awake, Steve.”

“Yeah,” he says, voice dry. “Uh - where’s everyone?”

Nancy tilts her head behind her. “The kids are playing in the snow.”

Steve thinks she’s fucking with him at first, but then she shrugs her shoulders a little helplessly, letting out a small, gentle laugh.

“No shit?” he asks.

“Jonathan’s getting them now, so we can get back on the road,” she says. “Only a couple of hours back to Hawkins.”

Steve tries to shift. “You want me to drive, or -”

Nancy flaps her hand at him. “No, no. You - you two just stay here, relax. Okay? Relax and do nothing.”

Steve nods back at her. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

Nancy looks like she wants to say something else, but then just shakes her head. She smiles at the two of them and then disappears from view. A few moments later, the driver’s door slams shut, and Steve can hear Nancy settling into her seat. Not too far away, the kids are all laughing and screaming. And for the fucking first time in days, the sound lifts Steve’s heart just a little bit.

“Steve?” Kali’s voice is soft.

He twists, glancing back and up at her. “Kali.”

Her eyes trace over the lines of his face. There’s something in her gaze makes his stomach flip strangely. It’s not quite the look she usually gives him, in serious moments. It’s not the one where she’s evaluating him, diving deep into his soul and past all his bullshit. No, this is similar, but it’s - there’s something more to it. This is softer, almost. Like she’s standing at the edge of a diving board and asking him to leap in with her, because she’s scared that once she hits the water, she might not be able to kick her way back up to the surface.

But just like all the other times, she surprises him.

“Have you ever heard of a book called The Princess Bride?” she asks.

He furrows his brow at her. “Uh.”

She huffs a small laugh. “It’s this - it’s entirely crazy. It’s written by this man who pretends that it’s an abridged version of a much older story about European royalty -”

“Okay,” Steve pauses.

He wonders if he’s actually concussed because this? This goes beyond her surprising him. This is just straight-up weird shit, right here. And they literally just destroyed another dimension full of monsters.

Maybe she’s concussed, actually -

“The point is,” Kali shakes her head. “The point is.”

“Is?”

“There’s this one character, Inigo Montoya. The whole book, he’s searching for this - the six fingered man.”

“The six fingered man.”

“He murdered Inigo’s father. And Inigo has this whole mantra, what he’s going to say once he finds the six fingered man,” Kali says, her voice getting softer with each word. “And he gets his chance, eventually, to say it, when he kills the six fingered man.”

Steve feels all of the air leave his body. “Oh.”

“In the end, Inigo feels… kind of empty. Because his quest for vengeance is over, now, and he doesn’t really have anything to live for, really,” Kali says.

“Kali -”

“Madge told me to read it, after it was clear that I wasn’t buying her morality lectures based off of Jane Austen,” Kali says, fondness in her voice. “And I always knew why she wanted me to. It’s a great story, of course, but - the parallels are clear. They’ve always been clear.”

Steve clears his throat. “What happens to Inigo? After he kills the six fingered man?”

Kali says, “It’s kind of ambiguous. But the narrator thinks Inigo and his friends got away safely.”

Steve knows his next words are too fucking important to mess up.

“What do you think happens to them?”

Kali is silent for a long time. The radio keeps playing low in the background. Cold wind blows into the van, bringing small flurries of snow into the back. Jonathan yells for the kids to come back, that they gotta get to Hawkins and clean up and get some fucking rest. Will yells back for him to shut up and then it sounds like someone pelts him with a large snowball. Nancy giggles in the front, the sound muffled like she’s trying not to break into peals of laughter.

“I don’t know,” Kali says finally. “Maybe - maybe he just wandered for the rest of his life, trying to find something else to do. Other evils to vanquish.”

“Okay, okay, alright,” Steve says. “But maybe he - shit, maybe he settled down somewhere. Found a place to call home, and vanquished evil from there.”

It’s not even thinly veiled, and he knows how it sounds. How desperate and hopeful and messy it all is. His heart pounds against his ribcage painfully as he waits for her answer.

And when she speaks, it’s simple, but so fucking loaded, because of fucking course it is.

“Maybe,” she says.

 

+++

 

A team of nondescript black cars is parked along the perimeter of Hopper’s cabin. There’s also a large white tent and a bunch of weird lab equipment near the edge of the property. Steve thinks he can spot some outdoor showers and a bunch of plastic bins marked “biohazard.”

As Nancy slowly turns into the driveway and pulls up, the cabin door bursts open. Steve lifts himself up and glances through the window as Joyce and Hopper practically fly down the stairs and run towards the van. Dr. Owens and a few people in lab coats - scientists, maybe - follow closely behind, though with markedly less enthusiasm. Nancy hasn’t even stopped the car all of the way before Jane is bum-rushing the back doors, unlocking and shoving them open with a wave of her hand. The bright, cold winter day shines into the van. It hasn't snowed here, but the sky looks like it's threatening to at any moment. 

It’s a flurry of movements as all of the kids and Jonathan trip out of the van, right on Jane’s heels. Steve barely has time to move before he catches sight of Hopper. His face is still pale and he looks bone-tired, but he’s alive. Fucking alive and not snapping and frothing at the mouth and there’s no black veins anywhere on his face. Steve almost falls out of his seat in relief. The lab coats must’ve been able to fry the mind control shit out of him without killing him, he thinks.

Thank fucking Christ.

Jane slams into Hopper, practically jumping in his arms. Her arms twine around his neck and he grabs onto her like he’s never going to let go. His voice is low - too low for Steve to hear from still inside the van - but he looks about close to tears. A few feet away, Joyce kneels in the dirt, Jonathan and Will in her arms. The three of them tremble together, and the raw emotions there makes a knot form in Steve’s throat.

It only takes a few more moments for Nancy and the rest of the kids to all pile around Hopper and Joyce, each one getting their own hug in return. The scientists circle around them warily, as if they’re trying to find any signs of contamination or some shit. Dr. Owens gestures towards Jane and tries to say something to her, but Jane completely ignores him in favor of pushing her face into Hopper’s chest.

Steve glances at Kali. Her entire face has shuttered, and she seems smaller than he’s ever seen her. It’s the first time, after all they’ve been through, that he’s ever really seen her hesitant. Her eyes are fixated right on Hopper and Jane. Yearning shines through her face, and a moment later, she turns slightly. Her eyes catch onto his, and she dips her tongue out.

Steve decides to go with what feels right, correct choice or not be fucking damned.

He holds his hand out to her, eyebrows raises. She stares down at it - and okay, he gets it, his palm is still gross and nasty, fuck, he wouldn’t want to hold his hand if he were her, either - but then she swallows. She places her hand in his, molding her fingers around his and holding on tightly. It makes his palm throb in pain, but he just squeezes her hand back tightly. Together, they trip out of the van and onto the soft grass of Hopper’s yard.  His eyes catch on the cellar, and he almost smiles. The doors are thrown open, bricks strewn haphazardly across the grass.

Dr. Owens speaks too fucking loudly. He rants about how they all need to go to a secure location and having testing done, something about not cross-contaminating the evidence before it goes away. Beside Steve, Kali looks about two seconds from marching right up to Dr. Owens and punching him in the throat. Steve tugs her back slightly, keeping hold of her hand. Around them, the scientists murmur in agreement with the doctor.

“You all need to be taken back to my facilities right away for cleaning and testing -”

“Shut the hell up,” Hopper glares.

His arms are full of children - Jane is still tucked into his side, one of his arms is around Dustin, and Mike is tucked underneath the other. It’s such a ridiculous image with his fucking gruff voice that Steve does smile, then.

“Jim -”

“I told you could stay until the kids got back so you could test their clothes or whatever,” Hopper says, speaking right over him, “But if you and your men don’t back up right this second, I’m gonna get my gun and we’re gonna have a bigger problem.”

The field goes quiet for a moment, and then Dr. Owens raises his hand in the air. He circles his finger around and then goes towards the white tent. The scientists all follow him willingly, like a bunch of fucking lemmings. Kali’s shoulders remain tense, but she seems to be breathing a little easier the further they retreat.

“Alright?” Steve finds himself asking.

Kali snorts at him, not giving him a direct answer.

Steve glances back at Hopper. He still has one arm around Jane, but his other arm is free. The rest of the little shits are milling around in the grass with Jonathan and Nancy. Joyce is bent next to Max, looking like she’s gently prodding at her shoulder. Lucas holds one of her hands as Dustin talks a mile a minute about some shit or the other. Steve catches a few words here and there - he’s blabbing about how rad it was to be able to control the demo-dogs, completely glazing over the fact that he was almost a Mind Flayer zombie.

Fucking kid.

“What’re you doing over there?” Hopper asks.

Steve thinks he’s talking to him, but then he catches the direction of his gaze. He’s looking right at Kali. Kali stares back at him, face almost blank. Hopper holds his free arm out towards her, gesturing with a flick of his wrist.

“Come here, kid,” Hopper says.

Kali glances at Steve, as if she’s trying to telepathically ask him what’s happening.

“Oh, for the love of -” Hopper glares.

He lets go of Jane and stomps over to Steve and Kali. Steve almost jumps when Hopper pats him on the shoulder and nods at him. He has a look full of gratitude and a glimmer of relief - probably that Steve’s standing there and not dead in Chicago somewhere - on his face. Then Hopper opens his arms and practically lifts Kali off of the ground as he hugs her. As he does, Kali’s hand slips out from Steve’s and he steps away slightly. It looks almost funny to see. One towering, gruff policeman squeezing onto a small, punk girl like his life depends on it.

Kali makes a small noise before tentatively wrapping her arms around Hopper.

A moment later, Jane squeezes her way into the hug too, and the three of them stand there, wrapped around each other.

“Dad.” Jane speaks, tearful but strong. “Sister.”

“Yeah,” Hopper says, sounding choked up. “Welcome home, girls.”

Steve feels an arm land gently around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug. It's Joyce, a small, tired smile on her face. Steve smiles back at her, nudging his head against her hair. He feels kinda bad about touching her, what with the grime and guts all over him, but he figures it’s fucking alright. Cause it’s a homecoming, a celebration, for one. And for another, she’s practically covered in the shit already, from her kids and everyone else hugging her before he has.

When they break away, the hug between Hopper, Kali, and Jane has ended, too. But Hopper still has an arm around each of them, his fingers digging in gently into their shoulders. Jane leans into Hopper heavily, head resting on his chest. Kali holds herself a little bit more stiffly, not completely pressed into Hopper. But when she catches Steve’s eye, she smiles. And it’s something small and real and just for him, something that he thinks says, _yeah, Steve. Maybe._

 

+++

 

Of fucking course, Dr. Owens doesn’t let them stay that way for long.

All of them are pushed and prodded into the white tent, looking like some shit out of an episode of the _Twilight Zone_. Someone takes his blood pressure while another one looks down his throat and swabs around his tonsils. There’s a lot of rapid murmuring about smoke inhalation and residual trauma, but the scientist who does the examination doesn’t seem too worried.

Once that’s done, Max, Jane and Kali are shuffled towards one end of the tent, and Steve and the boys are all pushed to the other end. Steve barely has time to protest before some middle-aged man is tugging at what’s left of his clothes, taking them off of him and bagging them up. Steve tries to protest as he grabs his boots - those are expensive shoes, alright, and his only winter boots, shit - but then he’s being shoved underneath a shower completely naked. The water is almost scalding as it presses into his skin.

He briefly panics, wondering if Kali’s okay - she definitely is not gonna fucking like this, none of it - before someone in a Hazmat suit comes towards him with a bucket full of suds and a sponge, like he’s a fucking car and they’re trying to fundraise for new basketball uniforms. The person in the suit basically fucking attacks him with soap - it stinks like oatmeal, of all fucking things - scrubbing down on his skin. His flesh feels raw and pink with each swipe of the sponge.

“Hey!” Steve yells, trying to bat the hands away as they graze his ass.

Jonathan is right across from him, and he doesn’t seem to be faring much better. Steve idly thinks that it’s good this is all happening on Hopper’s fucking middle-of-nowhere property, else some random townspeople would get a good look of a bunch of naked-ass teenagers. Steve flinches, even thinking about it. Cause it’s one fucking thing to strip down in the locker room at school, alright? But this? This is fucking humiliating and borderline harassment.

Hands scrub at his scalp and face, and Steve feels like all the hair on his head is gonna be waxed off in a few minutes. He opens his mouth to tell them that he will fuck them up, thank you very much, if they so much as come at him with scissors, but that’s the wrong move. Another suited scientist comes over and shoves a toothbrush into his mouth, rubbing at his tongue and teeth like Steve doesn’t have hands and the ability to clean his own mouth. Steve almost gags and then spits. The toothpaste is much too minty for his tastes.

He’s not sure how long the indignity of it all lasts, but soon enough, the shower beating down at him shuts off. He looks down at his feet, as the water slowly drains - to where, he has no fucking clue - all of it going down completely clean. A couple of scientists come back over and begin to fucking towel him down. He wants to make a fuss of it all, but, to be honest, it’s kind nice. The towels are warm and dry and, frankly, he’s fucking tired.

He catches Jonathan’s gaze, who’s also being toweled down. Steve smirks and they make faces at each other, commiserating. They’re brothers-in-arms now, or some poetic shit.

Steve’s given soft boxers, a long-sleeved thermal, sweatpants, a huge sweater - everything in the same shade of gray - and white sneakers. They fucking let him put these on himself. Then another scientist comes over, applying peroxide and some kind of weird paste over all of his cuts. His palms and hands are bandaged up in clean, soft cotton. When he clenches his fingers they don’t hurt, surprisingly.

The rest of him, though?

Sore as shit.

“Hey, can I take a nap now, or what?” he asks one of the passing scientists. “You done with all my nooks and crannies?”

He hears Lucas’s obnoxious laugh a few minutes later. “Nooks and crannies, Steve?”

“Hey, shut up, asshole,” Steve calls back.

 

+++

 

Steve sits on Hopper’s porch, watching as the scientists move so fucking fast as they pack up the big white tent and all of the biohazard boxes. They’ve taken pretty much everything away from Steve, including his backpack but not his knife. That, they just scraped bits off of and tossed into an evidence bag.

There’s a signed invoice or some shit in folded up in the back pocket of his new sweatpants. A promise that he’ll receive “monetary compensation” in three to four weeks for everything they took away from him to be tested. He scratches idly at the back of his ear, wondering what the fuck he’s gonna tell his parents when they ask where his winter coat’s gone. That’s gonna be another fucking argument.

The little shits are all inside Hopper’s living room with Jonathan, splayed out on the sofa and carpet. The door is cracked open just a bit, so he can hear them complaining about being poked, prodded, and scourged by the Lab guys.

Dr. Owens stands stiffly a few feet away, speaking with Hopper and Joyce. Both parents scowl back at him, gesturing towards the cabin with wide, sweeping arms. They’re arguing about Jane, who's insisting on staying in Hawkins for a few more days. Dr. Owens keeps repeating the same phrases over and over - “not socially prepared,” “stress-induced anxiety,” and “decompressing in a stable environment.” Hopper speaks right over the doctor, telling him that what Jane needs right now is to be home, to be around family.

“I’m her fucking father, am I not?” he practically yells.

Kali and Nancy are tucked into one of the corners of the porch, sitting on the railing close together. Kali’s disgruntled and annoyed, Steve can tell. Her body’s rigid like a porcupine about to fucking strike at something, her hair all flat and pulled into a braid down her back. When they passed by each other, after the degrading showers, he had just reached out, touching the back of her hand. She only nodded at him, a slight grimace on her face, before retreating. She and Nancy pass a cigarette back and forth between them, which they had bummed off of Joyce. Joyce hadn’t even argued, just nodded and sighed, slipping them one from a pack in her back pocket.

Steve’s not even surprised to see Nancy smoking. Not after the fucking day - year - they’ve had.

Footsteps pad around Steve and then a body drops heavily, right next to him. Steve glances over and smiles at Dustin. His curly hair is even more unruly than it usually is. The kid pats down at it with his hand, looking vastly uncomfortable without his hat. The scientists had taken that, too.

“Hey,” Dustin says.

“Hey.”

“Thanks, Steve,” Dustin swallows. “You know, for...”

Steve’s heart swells. “Hey, shithead, you getting emotional on me?”

Dustin rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I am, so just sit there and try not to be an asshole about it.”

Steve laughs. “Alright, fair enough.”

“You’re a good friend,” Dustin says. “And - you took care of me. I’m not gonna forget that.”

“Dustin,” Steve’s voice gets quieter. “Kid. Of course.”

Dustin shakes his head. “I don’t remember - after I passed out. Everything was black and hazy and it just fucking burned. I don’t even remember the - Will said they electrocuted me, I was going crazy and snapping and -”

“That was all them,” Steve cuts him off. “I wasn’t there for that -”

“I know,” Dustin smiles, a little. “Your ugly-ass face was the first thing I looked for when I came around again.”

“Shit.” Steve doesn’t know what to say to that. “I -”

“Yeah.”

Steve slings his arm around Dustin’s shoulders, shaking him slightly and pulling him closer. Dustin huffs like he’s annoyed, but leans into Steve anyway. Steve squeezes him slightly, emotions welling up in his chest. Everything is too mixed up to define, really. But it’s like - it’s the fucking rush of affection he felt dropping Dustin off at the Snow Ball, and the surprised pride when the kid showed him the lot for trapping Dart, all in one.

“You know I love you, right, jackass?” Steve asks him fondly.

Dustin groans. “Who’s getting emotional now?”

“Yeah, well.”

Dustin’s quiet for a moment. “I love you too.”

They sit and watch Dr. Owens hiss something, right in Hopper’s face. Hopper looks like he’s about to punch him in the gut, when Joyce places a placating hand on his arm. Hopper deflates just slightly, and takes a step back. But instead of pulling him away, Joyce steps into his place. She goes toe-to-toe with Dr. Owens, her face tight and full of rage. Steve watches with interest as Hopper stares at her with admiration and like, pure unadulterated want on his face.

An interesting as shit development.

Something hits Steve on the back of the head. He turns to see Lucas and Max in the doorway of the cabin, giggling like - well, shit. Like the middle schoolers that they are. Max has a protective sling around her arm and Lucas has a bandage across his cheek. Steve glances down, seeing that they threw a paper ball at his head.

“Real funny, shitheads,” Steve calls to them.

“We’re hungry,” Max says in response.

“Yeah? What am I supposed to do about it?” Steve raises his eyebrow.

Lucas rolls his eyes. “You still have money from your parents, right?”

Steve scowls. “You’re all back in Hawkins, why don’t you go back to your own damn houses and raid your own fridges?”

“I want KFC,” Dustin pipes in.

From the corner, Nancy laughs. “Yeah, Steve, why don’t you go get us some KFC?”

Steve glares. “What the fuck am I, everyone’s butler? And KFC’s on the other side of town!”

“This cabin’s in the middle of nowhere,” Max rolls her eyes. “So everywhere is the other side of town.”

Steve groans. “Alright, smartass, but you all want me to drive, again, with my hands still torn the fuck up -”

He cuts himself off as Kali hops down from the railing. He catches the quick and annoyed, but fond, look that she and Nancy give each other. Kali nods at Steve, walking over to where he sits.

“I’ll drive,” she says.

Steve’s already shaking his head. “I’m not getting back in that van -”

Something sharp hits him on the back of the head, and then lands in his lap. Steve flinches away and shifts, looking down. It’s a ring of keys. When he turns, Hopper and Dr. Owens are still arguing passionately, but Joyce just waves back at him sunnily.

“Take my car,” Joyce shouts to him.

Kali walks past him, leaning over as she goes to grab the keys off of his lap. As her fingers graze over the cotton of his pants, Steve tries not to think about how there’s not much separating her hand from his dick. He coughs, blushing slightly, and shifts. It’s fucking embarrassing that a half-second touch could have his mind reeling but fuck it. He was almost killed like twenty fucking times in the last few days. He’s allowed a few dirty thoughts over some minor shit.

“Make sure you get extra biscuits,” Lucas says.

Steve flaps his hand back at the kid as he stands up. He trails after Kali like a puppy, rounding around Joyce’s car and sliding into the passenger seat almost thoughtlessly. Most of the black cars have pulled away from Hopper’s place already, the tent and all of the trimmings of the Lab guys packed up neatly. Almost nothing remains of their visit, as if they hadn’t even fucking been there, besides Dr. Owens. Steve has a feeling that by the time they return, it’ll be like they never came by at all.

Kali starts the car.

“You okay to drive?” Steve asks, voice low. “Cause I can -”

She huffs, putting the car into drive, and backing out of the driveway. “It’s fine.”

“You sure?”

She nods as she turns down the road, driving just underneath the speed limit. “I need something to distract myself from, anyway. The smell is horrible.”

Steve almost laughs, except it’s so fucking awful. “You could always take another shower.”

“Yeah.” A corner of her mouth ticks up. “I have an extra bar of Irish Spring in my bag.”

“They didn’t confiscate it?” Steve’s surprised.

Kali glances over at him, eyebrows raised. “I made sure that they believed that they did.”

It’s not a particularly funny thing to say, but Steve finds himself chuckling anyway. A moment passes, and then Kali’s laughing too, turning her head to face front again.

They don’t turn on the radio, but the ride isn’t awkward. In fact, Steve kinds likes the silence. It’s nice. To just drive leisurely with Kali, death and mayhem not fucking lurking over their shoulders. Steve sighs, shifting more comfortably in his seat.

Yeah.

He fucking likes this a lot.

 

+++

 

For a fucking Saturday afternoon in a small-ass town, the line at KFC is pretty long. It takes them twenty minutes just to get to the register, and then another fifteen minutes with all the food they have to order. The entire time they wait, Kali uses her powers to make herself look like some nondescript ginger that could be a junior or senior at Hawkins High. Fuck, if Steve didn’t know any better - you know, knowing her powers, but also, that devious ass look in her eyes - he’d think she was someone in his classes. Some cute enough girl that he’d flirt with in History but never make any real effort with.

Steve can’t really tell if it’s a good thing or not, that she’s done this. Pretending that she’s someone else, smiling bashfully and laughing at the Dad joke the cashier makes about kids eating with their eyes. As they stand off to the side, every few minutes he reaches out to touch her - her hand, her elbow, her thigh - just to make sure she’s real, that she’s still fucking standing there. It’s a bizarre feeling, fucking pressing his fingertips into denim but actually feeling soft cotton.

Something about it bothers him, the fact that she has to - or thinks she should or some shit - hide herself. And logically he gets it, he really does. But it occurs to him that this is the first fucking time that she’s done it when he’s been around. It’s freaking him out and makes a gnawing feeling grow in the pit of his stomach. It’s. He knows it probably has nothing to do with him, alright? He’s not that self-centered. But part of him feels like they’re moving backwards, with that move. He almost yearns for her defiant gaze, the one she shot him when she set him on fire the first night they met. At least that was real.

It was her.

She’s back to herself when they slide into the car, the buckets of food carefully tucked into the backseat.  

“I hated that, by the way,” he says to her.

She seems to know what he’s talking about, because she just smirks as they pull out of the parking lot and head back to the cabin.

“Did I ask?” she says, with a raise of her eyebrows.

He snorts, inclines his head at her. “Yeah, guess not.”

She reaches for the radio, turning it on. With anyone else, Steve would’ve thought that was a dismissal, a chance to drive back with the same comfort they drove in with. But she turns the knob so low that he can barely hear it, and Steve wonders if maybe it’s not a dismissal at all. Maybe it’s just a fucking habit or something.

Or, he thinks, maybe an excuse to just touch him.

Because as she drops her hand down, it doesn’t go back on the steering wheel. She puts it right on his hand, which is resting on his thigh. She twines their fingers today, but doesn’t look back at him. She concentrates on the road. Steve’s entire heart fucking burns.

“Why didn’t you do that at the school?” he asks. “When you came to get me.”

Her eyebrow goes up again. “Who says I didn’t?”

“Billy’s comments,” Steve says dryly.

That gets a smile out of her, but she doesn’t answer his question.

“I’m sorry about your bat,” she says instead.

He sighs.

He knows that later, he’ll have time to properly sit and mourn the bat. But right now, he’s still straddling the line between fucking relief at being life and total exhaustion at still being alive. And honestly? He doesn’t want to think about the Upside Down or the Chicago Lab, not right now. He wonders if it’s unhealthy to be actively trying not to think about it. He just fucking knows that tomorrow night, when he’s sleeping instead of just passing out from tiredness - and for the next few weeks, months, years - he’ll have to relive it all over and over again. He’s gonna have plenty of terrifying nightmares and spacey days and flinching at loud noises and gagging at the smell of flowery perfumes ahead of him.

Kali squeezes his hand gently like she knows what he’s thinking, but she doesn’t apologize. Instead, she pushes on ahead anyway. Because of course she fucking does.

“You can make a new one, though,” she says. “Sports star like you probably has tons of bats lying around.”

Steve laughs despite himself. “Yeah, probably. Though...”

“Hmm?”

“I didn’t make the bat, Jonathan did,” Steve says. “I’m just the one who started swinging.”

Kali laughs too. “Maybe you can ask him to customize this one. Burn your initials into the handle.”

Steve clears his throat. “Someone… did that for your keychain, right? The leather building.”

Steve’s expecting silence. He’s expecting the calculating look she always gives him, the one before she bestows a small piece of her past onto him. He expects a weighted moment and a faraway gaze and a small sigh. What he gets is a grin and a firm head nod. Some strands of her hair fall out of its braid as she does.

“Madge’s daughter was really big into arts and crafts,” Kali says.

Steve blurts out the words before he tells himself to chill the fuck out. “Madge had a daughter?”

“Noelle,” Kali says. “She was a couple of years older than me. Constantly moving from project to project. Most of the time it was cool, but the time she got a Bedazzler must’ve been the worst month of my life.”

Steve grins. “Did you have a rhinestone-covered jacket?”

She nods seriously, but her lips twitch at the corner. “A leather jacket with a red, glittering skull and bones on the back.”

“I bet you looked good in it,” he teases her.

“I always look good, Steve,” she says.

He wants to say something corny like, _yeah, but you look especially good in my bed_ but he’s not entirely sure that she wouldn’t just lean over him, open the door, and shove him out of the car. He parts his lips, some equally horrible pick-up line about to come out of his mouth. Luckily, his tongue has a different idea than his fucking brain.

“Were you and Noelle close, then?” Steve asks.

Kali nods and says quietly. “Like sisters.”

Part of him wants to blurt out that he's sorry for her loss, but he doesn’t know if she’ll accept it. If she’ll appreciate it or if it will just be rubbing salt into the wound. The other part of him wonders if he should keep it in just to save for later. The tender apologies and trying to understand for things that he had no part in. He’s just not sure what his role is, here, yet.

All of it is just so raw and so new. It’s all fucking trial and error, alright? And he - he thinks this can’t be the last fucking conversation like this that they have. She still hasn’t made any commitments about what she’s doing next, and that’s fine, right? It’s perfectly okay; everyone just needs a few days to settle the fuck down. But he still wants to hope that she'll stay in Hawkins or close by or some shit.

It is for selfish reasons.

He’s not gonna fucking lie.

He likes this, he likes her, so fucking much. He wants to slowly find out all this stuff about her; he wants more car rides and late nights and teasing and deep conversations. He wants to make out with her and then some and take the little shits to the arcade together and keep talking about books written centuries ago. He wants to go to fucking movies together and go shopping, though he’s sure they’ll bicker about clothes and music all the time.

But he also wants family for her.

He wants her and Jane together, building themselves up and trying to heal through the fucking mess that Brenner made of them and their lives. He wants her to experience Hopper’s awkward hugs and gruff emotional speeches. He thinks it would be good for all three of them. And he thinks that something like that - small, dysfunctional, real - could do Kali a load of good. Because fuck, anyway. She’s good at collecting people, right? The misfits, she’d said.

No one matches that more than fucking Hopper and Jane.

And him.

And Nancy and Jonathan and Dustin and Lucas and Mike and Will and Max and Joyce.

The strangest fucking family in Hawkins.

She glances at him and must find something in his face, his fucking internal dialogue or something written all over it. Her hand tightens, just a little bit, around his.

“Jonathan hid his camera with his mother before the… Lab men confiscated most of our things,” she says.

“Okay?”

“He’s going to show Jane the negatives, so that she’ll be able to locate sixteen and twenty-two.”

And there it fucking is, her choice. He can’t begrudge her for it, and he never fucking would. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t fucking hurt. It’s a feeling like slamming his hand into the spikes of his bat.

“That’s great,” Steve says.

“When I find them,” and Steve’s heart swells a bit, that of course she says _when_ and not _if_ , “I’ll be able to help them find their own families.”

He tries to crack a joke. “Through the connections that helped you find us in the first place?”

She says seriously, “yes.”

He’s quiet for a minute. “That’s good. And - with the rest of the photos, maybe Nance and Jon will be able to give it to the journalist they know. Expose the Lab and… I don’t know. Bring the others peace. Or some shit.”

“Yeah,” Kali says. “It won’t bring them back. But...”

But.

Always a but, and something dawns on him.

“Will you take Jane with you?”

Kali shakes her head. “Jane’s family is here.”

He can’t fucking help himself. “Yours cou -”

“Steve,” her voice is soft. “Steve.”

He inhales sharply. “Right, right. Okay.”

Her hand tenses on his, just slightly, and he’s worried that she’s gonna pull hers out of his grasp. But instead she just sighs.

“They deserve families. To be more than just numbers, to be more than just… disposable test subjects. To be nothing.”

“And you?” he asks.

She says, “I deserve to get back what they took from me.”

He nods, quiet.

 

+++

 

Neither of them speaks again until they’re parked in Hopper’s front yard. All traces of the Lab are gone, Steve thinks, except for some grass that’s clearly been driven on. They both get out of the car slowly, grabbing all of the food from the backseat. Steve’s got two buckets full of chicken in his arms before he realizes that Kali is just standing stiffly, staring up at the cabin.

“Kali?”

She turns to look at him, an odd look on her face. It’s half amusement and half suspicion. She nods back at the cabin, and Steve glances at it. It looks almost completely dark, even though he knows that everyone else must still be inside. There’s a few lights peeking out from behind the drawn curtains, though; when Steve squints he sees red, blue and orange. For a moment, he freezes, his mind flashing back to when they first had to fight zombie Hopper. It passes almost as soon as it comes, though Steve breathes a little harder.

The front door opens a crack, and then there’s Max, Lucas and Will, peeking their heads out. They spot Steve and Kali before giggling and going back inside, shutting the door hard behind them.

“Something’s happening,” Kali says, amused.

Steve just rolls his eyes though. “You think it’d dawn on those assholes to help us bring this shit in?”

Kali snorts and between the two of them, they gather up the rest of the foot. Steve has to kick the backseat door closed with his foot, but otherwise they make it up to the cabin alright. They go up the stairs and when they reach the door, he has to knock at it with his elbow.

Jane cracks the door open with a mischievous smile on her face.

Kali raises her eyebrows. “Jane?”

“Just come in,” Jane says.

Kali shifts and then Jane opens the door even wider.

Steve follows Kali tentatively into the living room, where he almost drops the food in his hands as he takes in the cabin. The entire place is decorated in strings of Christmas lights, blue and gold streamers, and balloons in an explosion of colors. Nancy and Joyce have party hats on, strapped on their chins, and Dustin and Lucas have plastic kazoos. For some fucking reason, there’s even a fucking disco ball hanging from the ceiling. The television blares softly in the background, and Steve catches a glimpse of the MTV logo on the screen.

“Happy birthday!” a chorus of voices yells at them.

Steve stands in the doorway like a fucking idiot, unsure of what to do.

“It’s not my birthday,” he says.

“Not everything’s about you, Steven,” Dustin says snottily.

Steve’s about to retort, but then his brain catches up to the situation. He lets out a soft “oh,” and then looks over at Kali. She stands there, stiff like a statue, with her mouth open as she takes in the room. Jonathan, Nancy and Hopper come over to them, grinning from ear to ear - well, Nancy and Jonathan are, Hopper’s just kinda grimacing - and take all the KFC from them. Jane slides up between him and Kali, throwing her arms around Kali’s waist. The little shits all stare at Kali expectantly.  

Joyce comes up to them, a soft smile on her face. “It’s not much, but, here. Your first legal pack.”

She holds her hand out, and Steve and Kali glance down in unison. She’s holding a pack of Camels, a small, shiny red ribbon smacked right into the center of the box. Steve can’t think of a more bizarre or more suiting present, if he’s being completely honest.

Kali must think so too, because she - honest to fucking God - seems to just melt. A large smile spreads across her face, and her eyes begin to shine as she looks at Joyce. Her arm lifts and goes around Jane, squeezing her close to her in a hug. Then she starts laughing, the most raucous and beautiful sound Steve’s ever heard. It’s so loud and raw and she starts snorting halfway through, reaching out to clutch at Joyce while she laughs.

Soon, everyone else starts in, too. Will almost falls down on the floor laughing and Nancy holds onto Mike as she giggles. Even Hopper chuckles, retreating into the kitchen for a moment and then coming back out with cups, plates and plastic utensils. Steve crosses his arms over his chest, leaning against the doorframe, and just fucking grins, taking it all in. He looks at Jonathan, standing somewhat away from everyone else. It’s only then that he notices the camera in his hands, fingers taking shot after shot of them all.

When Jonathan turns and points the camera at him, Steve grins, his cheesiest fucking grin that he can.

 

+++

 

They spend the whole day in Hopper’s cabin, talking and relaxing and listening to shitty music on MTV. It’s only after the KFC has been demolished and Nancy brings out a grocery store sheet cake - _Happy 18th Birthday Cally_ scrawled in pink icing on top - that Kali asks how they fucking knew. Everyone’s scattered around the living room, limbs strewn out and bellies being rubbed. Kali’s right next to Steve on the floor, sitting crossed legged and leaning against him. Steve’s legs are out in front of him, and he has a gentle arm around her back, hand not quite curling around her hip.

Jonathan fiddles with his camera sheepishly. “When I was taking photos of the files… and came across yours… I thought there was something really familiar about the date of birth listed. I didn’t realize it was today until we got back here and Hopper was complaining about having to go into work tomorrow.”

Steve snorts. “Sounds about right.”

“I told Nancy right after we got out of those creepy fucki -” he glances at his mom, pauses. “Uhm. Creepy showers.”

Joyce flaps her arm at him. She’s sitting on the couch, squished in between Will and Hopper. Steve notes with interest that Hopper’s got his arm around Joyce in a real fucking familiar way. It’s really sweet, the way she’s tucked up next to him. He wonders if it’s worth the glare he’ll get for being a shit and asking Will and Jonathan if they’re ready for a new dad and a new sister. Steve snickers.

“Dustin and Mike overheard,” Nancy says. “It was their idea.”

Jane says, “Birthday parties are important!”

Mike beams at her. “Exactly.”

“Well, this is...” Kali smiles, looking down at her knee. “This is great. Thank you.”

“Is that what the KFC was really about? Getting her out the cabin?” Steve asks.

Max rolls her eyes. “Obviously. We needed time to go to the store and decorate.”

“Yeah.” Nancy smirks at him. “And we assumed Kali would go wherever you went.”

Steve can’t help the obnoxious grin that spreads crosses his face.

Jane clears her throat and asks, “Kali? Can you… will you do the butterflies?”

Kali doesn’t say anything for a moment, the only noise a commercial on the television. Finally she nods, rolling her back.

“I’ll do one better,” she says. “Here.”

She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath in. Steve leans closer to her, already prepared to see the garden again. His heart beats faster as he thinks about just how fucking beautiful it - she - was, the smile never falling off of his face. When the cabin falls away though, it’s pitch black for a few seconds. Then, Steve sees a bright skyline in the distance; there’s a huge stretch of water between them and where he sits. The floor beneath him is now concrete, and there’s a couple of trees and benches around them. Just as he looks up, a flash of lights pops above them. Instead of the ceiling, there’s a shit ton fireworks going off. It’s - it’s the fucking most amazing thing Steve’s ever seen, in his life.

He watches as the colors pinwheel and just fucking pop against the black sky, bursting like neon dandelions being blown on. There’s a million shades of color in each one - brilliant reds and shocking blues and incredibly bright whites - and Steve’s eyes try to track each and every one of them. Around him, everyone gasps and yells in delight and coos at how fucking beautiful it is. Steve’s making a few astounding noises of his own, he knows. But it’s just so - it’s amazing.

He looks down at Kali, her hands up on her lap as she just laughs, breathless and full of happiness. Her face is mostly hidden by shadows and the darkness, but every so often, the fireworks just fucking brighten her face. Steve stares at her, heart pounding almost painfully behind his ribs as he catches glimpses of her face. The bright colors flash and spread across her skin like a fucking painting and it’s so, so fucking heart-wrenchingly beautiful. He thinks that this is how he’s going to think of her, for always. Illuminated by fireworks and jubilation.

He hears Joyce say, “Kali, this is so beautiful!”

And he’s - alright.

Kali’s eyes meet his, that dark, unfathomable brown glassy in the lights. And Steve can’t fucking help it, cause he’s a romantic and corny as hell and it’s all just so, so much.

“She is,” he says, softly.

Kali winks at him and then looks back up at the fireworks.

 

+++

 

The night doesn’t last much longer.

They all help Hopper clean up the cabin and then there’s too many hugs and flailing limbs as everyone says bye to Steve and Kali. Nancy, Jonathan, Will, Max and Lucas pile into Joyce’ minivan, where she sits behind the wheel waving. Jane wants to stay over at the Byers’s too, so she gets into Hopper’s pick-up with Dustin and Mike. It’s dark outside by the time everyone leaves, the sun having set a few hours earlier.

“Staying over too, Hop?” Steve asks, giving him a shit-eating grin.

Hopper just rolls his eyes and pats Steve on the back. “Get home safe, kid.”

“Don’t leave town,” Jane says aggressively.

Kali nods at her. “Okay.”

Jane levels her a stare and reminds her, “Friends don’t lie.”

“Jane,” Kali’s voice is soft. “I promise. I’m not leaving tonight.”

Steve ends up back inside Kali’s van, sliding into the passenger seat like he belongs there. Kali smirks at him as she gets into the driver’s seat, slamming the door shut behind her. They end up following Joyce and Hopper back towards town. When they turn and the other two cars stay straight, though, a short honk comes from Joyce’s car. Kali presses on her own horn, a farewell greeting.

It’s weird to be back in his house, Kali leading the way. His parents still aren’t home - he can’t remember exactly if the note had said they’d be back Tuesday or Thursday, so whatever - and everything feels too still and too quiet. Steve flicks on all the lights in the kitchen and goes to check the answering machine, but there’s nothing waiting for him. He looks at Kali as she kicks her shoes off by the door, giving the generic sneakers the scientists had given her a glance of disgust. Steve smiles at her, reaching for her as she walks by him.

She slips out of his grasp though, twisting. She skips backwards, traipsing through his house and up the stairs right to his room like she owns the place. Steve follows after her, a wry smile on his face as he takes in her light-hearted mood. He feels it spreading to him, short bursts of contentment flowing through his veins. He knows - he fucking knows, alright? - That she’s gonna leave eventually. But he knows that she wouldn’t lie to Jane, either. So he trails after her, like there’s a magnetic bond connecting them, the promise that she’ll stay at least until tomorrow grounding him. Neither of them says anything, and he supposes, at this point, maybe they don’t have to.

When they get to his room, Kali drops her backpack somewhere near the corner of his bed. She bends down to dig through it, and he surveys the rest of the room. It feels weird, being back in this space, being safe, being home. It’s exactly as he left it, mostly clean with a few clothes strewn around the room. His copy of _Pride and Prejudice_ is still on the floor, and all of his schoolwork is still on his desk. He looks at his textbooks with a wince. Fucking shit, he forgot he still has weekend homework to do.

Well.

At least tomorrow’s Sunday, he thinks.

Kali stands back up, a small pack in her hands, she cocks her head, and Steve realizes is a fucking bar of Irish Spring. He raises his eyebrows at her.

“‘I’m gonna go shower,” she says.

He nods. “Oh, right. Okay. You know where the towels are -”

“You should shower, too,” Kali says. “You reek.”

He’s about to protest - hey, after that weird tent shower, he’s probably cleaner and more disinfected than he’s ever been in his life - but then he catches the teasing look on her face. He grins back at her.

“Right,” he says.

The grin slides off his face though, when she starts fucking taking off her clothes, right there. In his room, in front of him, as she slowly stalks towards the bathroom.

She bends over to pull of the socks first, leaving them balled up on the floor. Next, she pulls the gray sweatshirt up over her head, throwing it into some corner of his room. She shimmies the sweatpants off next, stepping out of them and rounding the end of the bed to come closer to him. Steve can’t take his eyes off of her, not really fucking sure where to look but pretty sure it’s okay that he’s staring.

The teasing look never leaves her face as she goes and it’s the fucking sexiest shit Steve has ever seen.

He’s pretty sure he couldn’t have imagined this up, to be honest.

Just as she passes him, she tugs off the thermal shirt and tosses it back at him. Steve catches it, not even fumbling - and boy, would Coach be fucking proud of that move - as his eyes narrow onto the muscles in her back. He almost chokes on his own spit because shit - shit - she doesn’t have a bra on. It’s just an expanse of beautiful brown skin and gray cotton underwear.

She disappears into the bathroom, but she doesn’t close the door. Steve stands, almost glued to the floor, staring at the bathroom. He hears the water turn on, the spray of the shower beating down on the tub. Then, the noise of the shower curtain being pulled back hits him like a fucking truck.

Because.

Shit.

Holy shit.

Is she…?

Should he…?

What is she…?

“You coming, or what?” Kali’s voice calls out.

For just a split second, Steve wonders if he really did die in the Elder Brain pool, and now he’s literally in heaven.

“Steve?”

Steve has never gotten undressed faster in his entire fucking life. Not even the first time he ever used a locker room and was twelve and scrawny as hell and embarrassed to be sharing with fucking high school seniors. He ends up tripping, the sweatpants tangling around his shins and ankles as he tries to get out of them, but he can’t even dredge up the humor to laugh at himself about it, because. Because! Kali is fucking naked in his shower. The shower that he’s about to get into. The shower that he’s about to share with a beautiful and scary and funny and effervescent girl.

He almost crashed into the bathroom doorway.

The curtain is only half-drawn so he catches some glimpses of water on skin. The plastic grocery bags that he had used for his last shower are hanging up over his towel, and he looks at them forlornly. He probably should wrap his hands up, at least around his palms to cover the bandages. The longer he stands there, staring at the bags though, the more self-conscious he feels.

Because this is crazy, right?

Like - alright, he has a great body, if he doesn’t say so himself. All those varsity teams and shit, plus, you know, running for his life. But taking a shower with someone is - well. That’s a little fucking different than getting undressed in front of them or having sex in a dark room, underneath a pile of sheets and blankets.

This is… intimate.

The curtain rustles, and Kali peeks her head out at him. Her hair is already wet, loose from its braid and hanging around her face and shoulders. The water that runs down is tinted just the slightest bit purple. She gives him a flat look, as if asking him what’s taking so long, and he has to give her kudos for not immediately dropping her gaze to stare at the rest of his body.

“Need some help?” she asks.

He gestures to the plastic bags. “Probably shouldn’t get the bandages wet.”

She huffs. “Right.”

Before he has time to adequately prepare himself, she’s stepping back out of the shower, all up in his space. Steve takes a step back, automatically tilting his head up to stare at the ceiling instead of Kali’s naked - damn - body. He swears to fucking God, he’s never been more interested in the crown molding in his life.

“Give me your hands,” she says, laughter clear in her voice.

Steve sticks his hands out in front of her, holding them close to his body for fear of accidentally touching something she doesn’t want him to touch. He slowly drops his gaze as he feels her hands on his, though. He tries to focus on her face and neck, face flushing as he does. She has a slight smile as she looks down at his hands, gently wrapping the plastic bags around the bandages but leaving his fingers mostly free. He tries to distract himself by counting the pearls on her necklace.

It obviously doesn’t fucking work though, because he’s standing here naked with a gorgeous fucking woman.

When she finishes wrapping up his hands, she tugs at them, gently. He lifts his eyes up to her face. Her head is tilted and her eyebrows are raised, a fucking smirk on her lips. He finds himself grinning back at her, the steam from the shower fogging everything up just slightly. She pulls him into the shower with her until they’re both under the spray.

And holy fucking shit, is the water hot.

“Jesus Christ!” Steve winces away, retreating towards the back of the tub.

Kali laughs at him, pulling the shower curtain closed. “Too hot for you to handle?”

“I’m not trying to melt my skin off, shit!” he grumbles.

Kali half-turns to turn the hot water down, still standing completely under the showerhead. Steve waits a few more minutes until he’s sure it’s cooled off, before tentatively sticking his foot under the water. His big toe doesn’t seem to be burning, so he inches closer.

“Steve,” Kali rolls her eyes, exasperated. “You’re absolutely ridiculous.”

“Oh yeah?” he nods his chin at her. “Say that to my face.”

And just like that, he’s feeling playful as fuck. She grins back at him, all sharp teeth and teasing eyes.

What the fuck else is he supposed to do, then, besides crowd her against the tiled wall?

The shower beats down on both of them - a nice, lukewarm shower, thanks - and water and his hair get caught in his eyes. Steve just raises his hands though, placing them on either side of Kali’s head, caging her in. Her arms slip around his waist, pulling him even closer, and shit. There it is, her entire naked front pressed up against him. 

“Goddamn,” he mutters, shifting his hips just slightly.

Kali tilts her face up at him, rapidly blinking the water out of her eyes. He leans down, almost touching his forehead to hers, before angling his face. She leans up into him and kisses him first. Her lips are slightly rough and she tastes like disinfectant but it’s good, it’s so fucking good. His blood hums hot and bright in his veins and he could do this for hours, literally. Just stand there and fucking make out.

They kiss lazily like they have nowhere to be, and they don’t and it’s awesome. Her teeth scrape against his bottom lip and his tongue slides against hers in her mouth and every so often her breath hitches, just a little bit. Her hands slide up and down his back, scratching ever so slightly and pressing fingertips into his skin. One of his hands ends up in her hair, wrapped up in the thick tresses just at the back of her neck. His other slides down her front. He holds onto her ribcage and stroked his fingers against her stomach and then goes back up. She huffs when he does that, pressing herself against his hand even more. And then - oh fucking boy - she starts to fucking rub herself against him, slick bodies sliding and pressing and just. Fuck.

Steve has to reach back with his other hand at that point, blindly turning the cold water on higher.

She screeches into his mouth when the water hits them, just this side of icy. “Steve!”

He laughs at her. She tightens her grip around his waist, practically molding her body against his. Steve drags his lips across her cheek and under her jaw, biting and kissing her neck. She tilts her head up to give him more space, but doesn’t loosen her hold on him. His dick is pressed right against her thigh and he’s hard as shit.

“That’s too fucking cold,” she mutters.

There’s a million things he could say to her, right now. He could make a joke about needing to cool off or he could blurt out a sappy ass love poem, dedicated to her eyes and her hips and her sharp grin. What he says instead though - because apparently he’s lost all sense of self-preservation - is a hundredfold more true, more honest, and more presumptuous.

Probably.

“I don’t keep condoms in the bathroom.”

Her fingers flex on his back. “I’m not having shower sex with you.”

Alright, definitely.

“Oh,” he says, before continuing to suck a mark onto her neck.

“It’s incredibly dangerous,” she says breathlessly. “We’d probably both slip and fall and break out necks.”

He sort of wants to laugh because it’s such a fucking ridiculous thing to say, considering their history. They’ve literally battled monsters and set entire worlds on fire and snuck into secret government laboratories. At any which point - and at every point, Steve totally thought, come on - they’ve could’ve died. Gruesome, horrible deaths where no one would have been able to find their bodies. And for the most part, Kali was secure, she was strong and she was brave. Of course she was probably fucking scared too, but she was there with him, every step of the way.

Yet what she’s apparently most worried about is slipping in the shower.

“But...” she whispers.

His heart stops and he wonders if he’s doomed to die in this shower anyway. “But?”

One of arms slides to the front of his body and then her fingers close around his hand, the one still on her chest, trapped between them. She slowly pushes his hand down her body and his heart speeds up, thumping erratically. She stops when both of their hands are right at the junction of her thighs, and then she shifts, widening her stance just a bit. He’s pretty sure he’s not breathing anymore.

“I would be into… going to third base?” she grins up at him. “I think that’s what the kids are calling it, these days.”

He gurgles at her because - as much as he pretends to be - he’s not smooth, alright? He’s just not.

“Only if you want,” she says.

He presses his index finger up slightly, watching her face as she gasps, just a little bit. His heart pounds in his ears and she’s beautiful and perfect. He clears his throat and tries to sound casual, even though he’s sure he’s definitely not. He’s also positive that his tone of voice fucking actually screams  _for as long as we both shall live_.

“I think this is second base,” he says. “Third is mouth stuff.”

She still manages to fucking raise an eyebrow at him. “Mouth stuff?”

“Yeah.”

She shifts, leaning up to kiss him again. “Well. Alright.”

And - yup.

He’s gonna die in this shower.

It’s only suiting, then, for it to be by Kali’s hand.

 

+++

 

By the time they’re done rounding the bases, the water gets even fucking colder. Steve tries turning the hot water knob all the way up, but nothing happens. He stands there and shivers as Kali laughs and shrieks, dancing in and out of the water. Their hands slip against their bodies as they rub the bar of Irish Spring and washcloths against each other.

When it’s time to wash his hair, Kali massages the shampoo through his scalp and scratches at his skin. It feels so fucking good that he can’t help the small moan that comes out of his mouth. Kali reaches up and kisses him, wet and dirty; he can taste himself on her tongue and fucking - that’s hot, too. All of it is hot.

Except the water, of course.

After they’re all done, they wrap themselves up in their towels - Kali’s hair gets one all to its own, again - and rub each other dry. Steve pats a corner of Kali’s towel into his hair, trying to get some of the locks from soaking to damp. She helps him unwrap the plastic from his hands; the bandages are still dry and clean. He helps her lotion her back and she draws random shit in the steam on the mirror above the sink: hearts, butterflies, and stars. It’s incredibly cute; their eyes meet in the glass, through a sun with a smile on its face.

Back in his room, Kali goes straight to his dresser, pulling out a couple pairs of pajama pants and t-shirts. Steve smiles to himself and turns the heater all the way up. She throws his pajamas at him, laughing as they smack him right in the face. Steve smiles and cradles them in his arms, just looking at her. Watching as she yawns and stretches and puts on his pajamas like they belong to her. She flops on his bed when she’s done, reaching over the edge to pick up _Pride and Prejudice_. Even when the book's in her hands though, she focuses her gaze on him.

Steve smirks and drops his towel. Kali let’s out a long, low wolf whistle, and he almost chokes laughing.

“Like what you see?” He asks as he pulls his pajama pants up.

“It’s not bad,” she says, “for a suburban white boy.”

He scoops up a random T-shirt from his floor and chucks it at her. She laughs at him so hard - something full-bodied and so fucking carefree - that she has to place the book down on her chest for a moment. Steve uses that as his soundtrack as his body goes through the motions of his nightly ritual. It’s muscle memory: first the window, then the door, and then the overhead light.

“Your knife’s in my bag, by the way,” Kali says when her laughter dies down.

He nods at her, going over to her bag. He reaches into it, peering until he sees the glint of his butcher knife. It’s nestled in between some manila envelopes - files of some kind, Steve sees newspaper clippings poking out - and the first sweater she had stolen from him. He grabs the knife, before going over to his bed. He slides it back under the pillows and then stretches out, the muscles in his body popping. All the aches and bruises from the last few days feel like they’ve caught up to him. Everything kinda throbs, and he wishes he had grabbed a couple of aspirin before lying down.

Kali turns on her side to look at him, their faces barely a few inches away. He’s about to lean in and kiss her again, when he hears a loud, static sound coming out of his nightstand.

“Steve? You there?” Mike’s voice is muffled. “Kali?”

Steve groans, dropping his face down into his pillow. “Not this shit again.”

Kali rolls over, getting up slightly to grab Steve’s walkie-talkie out of his nightstand. Steve scoots closer to her as she does, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back to him once it’s in her hands. She glances over her shoulder at him, smirking, before pressing down on to speak.

“Hello,” she says.

“Oh, hi Kali,” Mike doesn’t sound surprised at all. “We were actually looking for you.”

“Is everything alright?”

Mike doesn’t sound panicked and no one’s screaming bloody murder in the background, so Steve decides to get comfortable. He nuzzles his face into Kali’s back, stifling a yawn against her - his - pajama top. He closes his eyes, only half paying attention to the conversation.

“Yeah, El just wants to talk to you,” Mike says. “Here.”

Jane’s voice comes over the line. “I found our siblings.”

Kali’s back stiffens, but Steve keeps holding her close, not wanting her to pull away. One of her hands idly comes up to hold one of his on her stomach. His thumb creeps underneath her shirt, stroking her bare skin.

“They’re together, in Chicago,” Jane says. “At a motel. I told Will, and he drew a picture.”

Kali lets out a deep breath. “So they’re alive. Safe.”

“Yes,” Jane says. “Come over tomorrow and I’ll show you.”

Steve falls asleep as Kali responds, the low rumble of her voice really fucking soothing.

 

+++

 

His sleep isn’t exactly restful; his fucking nightmares have nightmares.

He wakes up every hour, practically drenched in sweat and breathing fast and hard. Every time he startles himself awake, his heart pounding so hard it actually hurts, it takes him a few moments to re-orient himself. He has to countdown from ten each time, reminding himself that he’s in his bed, completely fine. He can’t tell if it’s helpful or not that he can barely remember the nightmares once he’s awake. They cling sort of on the edge of his fucking brain, just snippets - his lungs filled with water, dark clouds dragging him down, a bullet being shot between his eyes - that aren’t enough to focus on for too long.

It helps that each time he gasps awake, Kali is there, some part of her tucked away close to his body. First it’s her head, nestled against his collarbone, then it’s one of his legs wedged between her thighs. Each time, he just noses along her skin, breathing in her fucking Irish Spring scent. Even though he can hear her nightmares too - small whimpers or startled grunts - it’s still nice. Not just having a warm body next to him, but having her next to him. Someone who gets it, someone who understands.

Who knows that the monsters might not be under the bed, but they’re sure as shit out there, somewhere.

 

+++

 

He slowly wakes up to Kali’s face nudging against his. Her lips trail down his cheek and towards his ear, then back to his mouth. It’s a soft, sweet kiss, and he’s not a hundred percent sure that he’s not making this up in his exhaustion. He hums at her and tries to roll in her direction, to gather her back into his arms.

“Steve,” she says. “Steve, it’s almost four in the morning.”

“Why the hell are we awake,” he tries to say, blurrily slurring his words.

“I gotta go,” she whispers.

He feels the bed dip as she gets up, and he yawns, shoving his face into the pillow she’s just left. He doesn’t quite understand what she’s saying to him; he’s so tired from his nightmares and constantly waking up that he’s on the brink of just fucking passing out.

“Well, you know where the bathroom is,” he mutters.

She chuckles softly.

 

+++

 

Later, when Steve thinks about his last few minutes with Kali, he’ll fucking berate himself. He should’ve being paying more attention to what she had been saying, the importance behind her words, instead of just dozing back off. And later, a small part of him will also be pissed the hell off at Kali for leaving the way that she does. He'll think that she tricked him, plain and simple. Waited until he would be half coherent to sneak out of his house.

His life.

But a few hours after she leaves, Steve jerks awake. He sits straight up in bed, heart pounding as he remembers what just happened. He curses and then launches off of the mattress, almost tripping over his own feet as he stands up. He looks wildly around his room, for any hint that Kali’s still there. But all of her stuff - and his copy of _Pride and Prejudice_ , he thinks hysterically - is gone. The pajamas she had fallen asleep in are folded up on top of his desk, and his chair is no longer under the doorknob.

He races to his door, which is unlocked. He storms through the house, peering into every room and calling her name. By the time he reaches the kitchen, he knows that he’s alone in the house. He stands at the back door, wondering if he should even bother to peek outside, but decides against it. He already knows her van’s not gonna be there.

He stands there for a moment, trying to remember how to breathe. Her last words to Jane, in Hopper’s front yard, come crashing back at him. _I promise. I’m not leaving tonight._ The clock on the kitchen wall tells him that it’s almost six fifteen.

Well, one thing’s for fucking sure.

She didn’t lie.

Technically.

He trudges back up the stairs and to his room. He leaves the door open and sits on the edge of his bed, staring down at the walkie-talking on top of his nightstand. It’s too fucking early, he knows. He shouldn’t be bothering anyone else. But he has to - he has to fucking make sure, alright? He knows, deep in his gut, she wouldn’t have left Hawkins without going to see Jane. And its - look. If no one’s seen her, then there’s hope. Hope that maybe she just went out to buy breakfast or some shit. Maybe she hasn’t actually just snuck out.

He drags one hand through his hair and then picks up the walkie-talkie with the other.

“Hello?” he says into it.

For a moment, there’s no answer. Then, there’s just the sound of breathing - Steve thinks it’s more than one person. He imagines the whole gang just sitting there, camped out in the Byers’s living room or some shit, all shooting each other looks. Trying to decide who’s gonna speak first.

Nancy’s sigh comes over the line. “She left about an hour ago, Steve.”

He swallows. “That’s - yeah, okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah,” he tugs at his hair. “Yeah.”

“You wanna come over?” Nancy pauses. “We’ll make pancakes or something. All of us.”

“Maybe later,” he says. “Okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Goodnight, Nance,” Steve says.

He switches the volume on low and drops the walkie-talkie back into his nightstand.

As he leans back into his bed, he sighs.

He knows that by now, nothing should fucking surprise him. And he’s not surprised, not exactly. He knew this was inevitable; he'd been thinking about it all day. Kali leaving, going off to do her thing. He knows that she needs to do this, that she has to find herself and her way, or some poetic shit like that.

But he just didn’t think it would come so fucking soon.

He knows that he’ll get through it, just like he’s managed to get through all the fucked up shit that’s gone down. He just didn’t think it would hurt so fucking much.

Steve draws his covers up over his head and decides to just spend all day in bed. 

 

+++

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading loves! Let me know what you think - and then head on over to our epilogue ;)


	9. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...because y'all didn't think I was gonna leave you without a happy ending, did you?  <3

+++

 

Steve stumbles out of his room to the noise of his two roommates arguing about the same fucking movie they’ve been arguing about ever since they went to see it a couple of weeks before.

 _The_   _Princess Bride._

“Will you two shut the hell up?” he groans at them.

“No, because your friend Louis here is totally fucking wrong -” Alex starts.

Louis cuts him off. “Shut the fuck up, you’re the one who -”

“Ugh,” Steve says.

He walks the five steps it takes to get from the living room to the kitchen and goes straight for the refrigerator. As far as shitty college apartments go, theirs is one of the fucking worse ones around. But it’s close enough to campus that Steve can wake up thirty minutes before class and stumble out the door with a sandwich in his mouth and a bottle of water in his hands.

“Look, I’m just saying that they shouldn’t have left Humperdinck alive,” Alex yells. “He’s gonna send his men after them and they’re all gonna die -”

“You can’t just murder people, Alex,” Louis shoots back.

Steve opens the fridge and pulls out a Chinese food container off of the center shelf. He opens it and sniffs at it; he can’t tell if it’s the lo mien from two nights ago or from eight nights ago. And that kind of distinction is important, okay?

“It’s fictional, Louis,” Alex says. “And that can’t be your only -”

“Wesley is one of the good guys,” Louis says. “That’s why he couldn’t kill Humperdinck. The good guys don’t kill people -”

“Oh, but leaving them permanently scarred and disfigured is okay?” Alex shoots back incredulously.

Steve stands with the carton in his hand, smiling down at it a little bit fondly. Cause this exact argument reminds him of another one, years ago - _What? So you’d rather I tortured them with my mind?_ \- Except it wasn’t fucking about a children’s movie. A children’s movie that Steve actually has a lot of opinions on, but he knows better than to get into the middle of one of his roommates' arguments. He snags a fork from the drying rack and heads back to his room.

“Steve, you read the book, right?” Alex asks as he passes. “Did they fucking murder Humperdinck in the book?”

“No,” Steve says around a mouthful of noodles. “But it kinda comes back to bite them in the sequel. Humperdinck -”

“There’s a sequel?” Louis says incredulously. “And you read it?”

“Fucking nerd,” Alex says fondly.

Steve flips him the bird and retreats into the closet-sized room that’s costing him two hundred bucks a month. He kicks the door closed behind him and collapses onto the mattress on a box spring on his floor that’s serving as his bed. All in all, it’s not a bad space, though. His roommates are cool - when they’re not bickering like an old married couple - and he’s found a way to make it his own.

The wall next to his bed, for example; it’s covered in posters, photographs, and postcards. Most of the posters are of his favorite athletes, and most of the photographs are ones that Jonathan’s taken over the past few years. It’s a little piece of Hawkins that Steve’s taken with him every single semester, reminding him of home and the shitheads he loves. A lot of them are candid, just from times they’ve all hung out: at birthday parties, graduations, summer vacations and over Christmas. His favorite one is a picture of him giving Dustin a noogie, from just this past summer. It’s funny to look at, mostly cause the kid had sprouted up over the spring and was damn near taller than Steve.

There’s a knock on his door, then Louis is barging in anyway.

“Hey, shithead, did I say come in?” Steve asks. “I could’ve been jerking off -”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Nothing I haven’t seen before. Remember freshman year in that tiny ass dorm roo -”

“Alright, alright,” Steve says. “What’s up?”

Louis tosses a pile of mail on the mattress next to Steve. “Bills and shit.”

Steve groans. “Great. Thanks.”

“You also got another postcard,” Louis says, a sly grin spreading on his face.

Steve’s heart picks up. “You reading my mail? That’s a federal offense, you know -”

“Alright, pre-law, calm the fuck down,” Louis says.

Steve smirks at him as Louis leaves the room. Then, trying to seem casual - and who the fuck is he even doing that for, huh, his own reflection in the mirror hanging up on his closet door? - He drops his take-out carton on the floor and picks up his mail. He tosses all of the bills and a letter from his mom onto his pillow for later, and holds the postcard in his hands almost reverently.

He has a whole collection of them, dotting the wall in the spaces between posters and photographs. On all of them, the writing is face out, even the ones that don’t have anything scrawled on them besides _thinking of you_ or _found another piece of myself today._

Steve's favorite one though, is the very first postcard that he's received.  He had gotten it a few days after his high school graduation. On one side, there’s the Golden Gate Bridge; on the other, there’s messy handwriting in purple ink: _Steve - derivative from Stephen, meaning crown or wreath. Traditionally comes from St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity. Accused of blasphemy and consequently stoned to death. Alternatively: not a god of nothing._

It’s taped up on the wall right next to his second-favorite picture. Steve glances at it now. It’s an old photo, one of the oldest he has. Jonathan had given it to him with an apologetic smile a few weeks after they stormed the Chicago Lab. It’s of him and Kali, at her impromptu birthday party. They’re sitting on the floor, wearing those ugly ass matching gray sweatpants and sweater combo. They look haggard as hell and too tired to even be awake, honestly. But they look happy, so fucking happy. Steve’s arm is around Kali, and he’s looking off at someone - probably one of the little shits - and laughing. But Kali is staring up right at Steve, a wide grin stretched across her face.

Steve sighs, shaking his head at himself slightly.

That was a long, long time ago.

He looks down at the postcard in his hand, now. One side has an old car on it, _Hello from Motor City!_ Written across the image in red ink. On the other side, Steve immediately recognizes the purple scrawl. It only takes him a few seconds to read it: _Think I found what I’ve been looking for._

He sits there for a few more minutes, his chest constricting as he reads the words over again. Because what the fuck does that even mean?

Besides the sporadic postcards, Steve hasn’t heard from Kali since the morning she left Hawkins.

And yeah - of course he’s badgered Jane about her. He assumed that Kali wouldn’t just cut off all ties to her little sister, and he was right.

But fuck, if stubbornness doesn’t run in that damn family.

At first, Jane would just roll her eyes and tell him that she’s keeping tabs on Kali and to back off. But lately - Steve tries not to think it’s because of how pathetic he still is - Jane’s been a little nicer. Telling him that Kali’s doing better but to leave her the hell alone about it already, _because damn it Steve, you’ve only been home five minutes can’t you wait?_ This is all usually followed by loud peels of laughter from the rest of the not so little anymore shitheads, who think that because they’re teenagers now, they can tease him. Last time, when he had been home for Labor Day, Max had laughed so hard she fell off her skateboard and Lucas caught the hiccups.

So he’s fucking concerned!

That’s not a crime.

And he would know, pre-law and all of that.

There’s another knock on his door. This time it’s Alex who pops his head in.

“You ready to head to class?” he asks. “I need to get there early enough to kiss our T.A.’s ass after the last exam.”

Steve laughs, gently placing the postcard on the mattress beside him. He’ll have to overanalyze that shit later.

He starts to say, “Yeah, I just need to shower -”

Alex groans. “So that’s another twenty minutes with your fucking hair routine?”

“Hey!” Steve points his finger at him, glaring. “Don’t diss the hair, man.”

 

+++

 

“Oh man, I forgot to ask you, you got any plans for Thanksgiving?” Alex asks.

They stroll in the hallway towards their class, masterfully moving around the crowded hallways. Steve tugs his bag halfway off his back, digging around for a stick of gum. He’s pretty sure he left a pack in there, somewhere near the bottom.

“Yeah, I’m headed home,” Steve says. “Probably going to my friend Jonathan’s house.”

“That’s the one dating your ex-girlfriend, right?” Alex snorts. “Or, wait - is that the one whose mom married the police chief?”

“It’s the same guy,” Steve says.

“Small towns, man,” Alex says.

Steve lifts his head up to see Alex smirking at him as they enter the lecture hall. The room’s already half filled up, even though they’re still a few minutes early to class. A long line of disgruntled students, exams on their hands, already stand around the professor’s desk, looking like they’re harassing the poor T.A. Alex curses and sprints towards the front of the room, pushing some kid out of his way. Steve snorts.

“Save me a seat, man!” Alex calls over his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve says, waving his hand.

He goes towards their usual seats, a few rows from the back. It’s a good spot. They can sneak out early when things get too boring and they want go grab burritos, but they can also read the board pretty clearly. That's something they really need; the professor loves writing on the board and does very little lecturing beyond muttering about tenure every few minutes.

Steve drops down into his seat, pulling his bag onto his lap to keep hunting for his gum. Someone folds themselves into the seat right next to him, where Alex usually sits.

“That seat’s taken,” Steve says, not bothering to look up.

“Is it?” a woman’s voice asks.

“Yeah, that’s what I just fucking said.”

There’s a small chuckle. “I see you’re still cursing every other word, Steve.”

He’s about to give her a scathing retort, but the words get stuck in his throat. Because -

Because shit.

He knows that voice.

He looks up slowly, mouth halfway open like he’s a fucking fish or something. His bag slides off of his lap and onto the floor, but he barely notices it. All he can do is stare at the woman next to him. She looks almost exactly the same.

Almost.

She’s older, of course. But now she has a gold nose ring and her hair is short, chopped haphazardly right at her shoulders. It’s blue- black now, not purple, and the side of her head isn’t shaved anymore. Her gray jeans have a gaping hole in the knee and up her thigh, and she’s sitting cross-legged in the chair. Her boots are clunky and black and she has an old, familiar ass sweater on underneath a leather jacket.

She still has the plastic pearl necklace.

He can’t help the strained tone of his voice. “Kali?”

She smiles at him. “Steve.”

His heart races and he just - he just fucking stares at her. He idly wonders if he’s still sleeping or some shit, because he can’t believe that she’s here. After years of nothing but postcards, she’s - she’s just sitting here, in his Philosophy 201 class, as if she fucking belongs there. Next to him, book bag tucked under her chair and a pen tucked behind her ear.

He narrows his eyes at her. Before he can stop his hand, it’s lifted up. He just needs some kind of validation that she’s real, that she’s not some kind of illusion. Though - if she was an illusion of herself, wouldn’t that also prove that she was here? Somewhere in the vicinity, in his range of sight? He frowns as he thinks.

“Steve?” she asks.

He jabs at her cheek with his index finger. He feels soft, warm skin underneath his fingertips, before she’s lifting her arms up and batting his hand away. A few rows in front of them, a couple of girls have turned to stare at them. But Steve doesn’t fucking care about that, about them. He cares about this, about Kali being here.

He leans in and catches a whiff of Irish Spring.

“You’re - holy shit, you’re here,” he says.

She rolls her eyes. “In the flesh.”

“How?” he asks.

“I took a bus.”

“When?”

“Got in this morning.”

“Why?”

“Just taking a tour of the school,” she says, much too easily. “The admissions officer suggested I sit in on a few classes, see what I like.”

“Taking a tour of the school,” he parrots.

“Yeah, that’s generally what people do, isn’t it? After getting their GEDs. Go to college.”

“Go to college,” he says.

“Is this conversation just gonna be you repeating everything I’ve just said back to me, or what?”

He glares at her.

“Anyway, I hear they have a great literature program here,” she says. “And -”

“I haven’t seen you in years!” he cuts her off. “You snuck out of my room at the asscrack of dawn!”

The girls a few rows down are whispering to each other, now. Steve doesn’t even bother to shoot them a disgruntled look. He keeps his gaze on Kali, on the shadows in her eyes and the small ticks in her face. She’s giving him that look, again. The one she gave him when they first met and she was evaluating his character and his heart and whatever the fuck.

“Well,” she says finally. “I’m here now.”

Steve’s not a fucking moron. He knows that it’s not that simple. He knows they’re gonna have to spend endless hours talking about a bunch of shit - what they went through, where they’ve been, where they’re going, together or separately - and he knows they’re gonna have to learn each other. Actually get to know one another, outside of fucking life or death monster-fueled situations. But.

But.

There’s always, always a fucking but.

“I know, Steve, that things are complicated,” her voice is lower, more serious. “But I think -”

“Kali,” Steve says. “Shut up.”

She grins at him, sharp and fucking beautiful. “Shut up?”

“For now,” he amends.

Before he can do anything else, she’s leaning closer to him, grabbing onto his arm with her hand and pulling him into her. Their lips basically collide into each other - Steve has to pull his mouth back just slightly so their teeth don’t clank together - and then they’re kissing. His hand shifts and cups her face when she tilts her head, opening her mouth just slightly. It's an awkward angle and hard to get any closer in their chairs, but it's so, so good. To just kiss her and feel her under his hands and have her here, with him. 

He pulls away first, leaving just a few inches between them. “Kali.”

“Steve.”

“My apartment’s only five minutes away,” he says.

“I know,” she grins.

He raises an eyebrow. “You been hiding out in your invisible van again?”

She rolls her eyes. “No. Nancy told me.”

He almost chokes. “Nancy?”

She shrugs casually. “We keep in touch.”

“You - ” he cuts himself off, nodding his head. “Right. I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

“Steve.”

“Kali?”

“Shut up,” she tells him, a glint in her eyes.

He can’t actually tell if it’s dangerous or sexy or both, but he’s sure he’s about to fucking find out.

He grabs his bag with one hand and her arm with the other and practically drags her out of the lecture hall. Kali laughs behind him, and maneuvers her arm so that his hand slides down and holds hers. Steve glances back at her, a huge grin on his face as their fingers lace together.

He’ll get the notes from Alex later.

Much, much later.

 

+++

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) The movie version of The Princess Bride's release date was September 25, 1987. 
> 
> :)
> 
> Thank you all, again. Thank you so much for reading! 
> 
> I truly, truly hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've loved writing this! Please leave a comment below (for old time's sake) or feel free to come yell at me on [Tumblr](http://www.lo-cotidiano.tumblr.com).
> 
> <3


End file.
